Life of Thomas Jefferson, with selections from the most valuable portions of his voluminous and unrivalled private correspondence. By B. L. Rayner

,1 K p I. 1 B

SELECTIONS FROM THE MOST VALUABLE PORTIONS OF HIS VOLU
MINOUS AND UNRIVALLED

PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE.

BY B. L. RAYNER,

For I have sworn upon the Altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of
tyranny over the mind of man. Priv. Carres.

BOSTON:

LILLY, WAIT, COLMAN, & IIOLDEN.
1834.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1834,

By LILLY, WAIT, COLMAFT, & HOLDEN,
In the Clerk s Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

PREFACE.

THE materials for this volume are principally derived
from the posthumous works of Mr Jefferson himself.
These works were received with extraordinary approba
tion by one great portion of the public, as was the case
indeed with every thing which ever came from that re
markable man ; and by another considerable portion,
with a corresponding degree of dissatisfaction, always
to be expected from the well known opinions of the
Author on certain fundamental points, upon which a
strongly marked division of public sentiment has pre
vailed, since the foundation of the federal government.

These works extend through four large octavo vol
umes, of about 500 pages each ; nearly the whole of
which is occupied with the Correspondence of the Au
thor, public and private. And taken as a w r hole, it com
prises the richest auto-biographical deposit, and one of
the most valuable publications ever presented to the
world. It. is written in a style of unrivalled felicity ; and
supplies the record of many important transactions con
nected with our government, of which no authentic me
morials had been preserved. But it is in the light of a

03882

IV PREFACE.

private revelation, making its disclosures from the in
most recesses of the mind and character of the man,
that its most distinguishing excellence consists. We
have here the ungarbled contents of the cabinet of the
author, gradually accumulating through an era among
the most momentous in the annals of the world, and in
which he was himself a principal actor, and incessantly
placed in the most trying situations which it afforded.
This vast collection of letters, compiled from the unre-
vised manuscripts of the writer, thrown off on the spur
of the occasion in the freedom of unrestrained confi
dence, and spreading over a period of fifty years, have
opened the folding-doors to the character of Mr Jeffer
son, and introduced us into the sanctuary of his most
secret meditations. They derive essential importance
from the fact that at the time they were written, the
author had no conception of their ever being made
public.

It would undoubtedly be a happy circumstance for
this country, and for the mass of mankind, besides serv
ing to enhance the reputation of the author, if these
works could obtain a circulation which should place
them in the hands of every reader ; for if any tiling
could give stability to those principles, which form alike
the basis of his renown, and the elements of the splen
did structure of free government which he was instru
mental in establishing, it would be such an extensive
dissemination of his writings. Unfortunately, however,
the form in which they have appeared, is not the most
advantageous to the accomplishment of this desirable
purpose. The publication is too voluminous, and con
sequently too expensive, to admit of a general circula-

PREFACE. V

tion ; nor is the mode of arrangement the best adapted
to its reception into ordinary use as a work of reference.

These considerations have suggested the plan of the
present undertaking, which aspires to no higher claims
than that of an analytic, and, it is hoped, a well assort
ed generalization of the original publication. It has
been the leading object of the compilation, to condense
the most valuable substance of the four, within the com
pass of one volume, and to supply what are presumed to
be essential wants of the former, by interweaving a con
nected narrative of the Author s Life. The more im
portant political papers of Mr Jefferson, contained in
the original works, have been copied into this, or their
substance faithfully stated ; and many others of impor
tance, that have been procured from other sources, are
likewise introduced.

The selections from his private correspondence are
dispersed through the volume with reference to the topic
under consideration, more than to the order of time ;
and in making the quotations from this department, it
has been the object to bring the greatest quantity of
useful matter within the smallest space. Parts of let
ters, therefore, are usually introduced rarely the whole
of any one but sufficient to give the full sense of the
writer on any required point, avoiding all extraneous
observations. The historical and biographical portions
of the work have also been derived, in great part, from
this pregnant source. In some cases the very language
of the author has been adopted, without invariably not
ing it with the usual mark of credit. In all such cases,
however, the style or the sentiment will be sufficiently
1*

VI PREFACE.

distinguishable to place it where it belongs. Some parts
of the narrative may appear overwrought with eulogy
It is indeed a difficult matter to commemorate the deeds
of so distinguished a benefactor of the human race, with
out yielding in some degree to the influence of a passion
which they are so justly calculated to inspire ; and the
writer does not scruple to admit, that he has less en
deavored to restrain his own grateful feelings, than to
infuse them into the minds of his readers.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

BY A FRIEND TO THE EDITOR.

IT was the good fortune of Washington to finish his
unexampled career of usefulness, with universal appro
bation. No such fate has attended any of his contem
poraries, or successors. Mr Jefferson had many and
powerful opponents to contend against, during the whole
of his political career. Some of these were no doubt
influenced by personal jealousies, and many by an honest
difference of opinion.

Where these differences involved matters of local or
of temporary importance, it could answer no useful pur
pose to bring them forward for renewed discussion at
this late day ; and in the volume before us everything
calculated to revive party animosities has been studious
ly avoided, without however suppressing any thing that
was necessary for historical accuracy, or to elucidate
deliberate opinions, and develop essential traits of cha
racter.

V11I INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

To such readers as have not been favored with the
perusal of the valuable edition of Mr Jefferson s writ
ings already alluded to, this unpretending volume may-
prove a safe guide to the true character and sentiments
of that distinguished man.

The difference between Mr Jefferson and his honest
opponents was this. The republicanism of Thomas
Jefferson was too thorough, too radical, to be adopted
even by a considerable portion of the best men of the
Revolution. A disinterested sacrifice of personal safety
to the welfare of the country was the same on the part
of all, but Mr Jefferson had greater confidence in the
wisdom and discretion of the people, than was enter
tained by a majority of his patriotic and devoted fellow-
laborers. Upon the organization of the government
under the federal constitution, this difference in opinion
soon became apparent in the councils of the nation
and Mr Jefferson stood forth the champion of Democra
cy. The more aristocratic party were inclined to re
strain the people, under the apprehension that they
were unqualified to govern themselves. This party was
designated by the name of Federalists, and soon em
bodied a very large proportion of the wealth and intelli
gence of the nation. Deriving our literature, our laws,
and our most respected usages from a nation where
arbitrary institutions prevailed, it was quite natural that
our intelligent citizens should desire an approximation
to that form of government, and suppose it indispensa
ble to tie up the hands of the people, in order to save
them from working their own destruction.

There can be no reason to doubt that here was an

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. IX

honest difference of opinion on the part of the Federal
and of the Democratic leaders, whatever may have been
the wicked animosity which grew up in the breasts of
designing and ignorant men who afterwards arranged
themselves under the banners of each party. Without
pretending therefore to decide at this time to what extent
either party might have erred, it is certainly to be desir
ed that the prejudices which belonged to those times
should now so far be overcome, as to qualify us to ap
preciate fairly the talents and services of the great men
of the Revolution, and render a just tribute to their
merit, besides aiding us in the more necessary duty of
acquainting ourselves with the character of our govern
ment, of our existing institutions, and their effect upon
the happiness of the people.

From the commencement of the Revolutionary strug
gle down to the period of his death, Mr Jefferson s pre
dominating fear was, that the rights of the people would
be disregarded. Neither was his love of liberty and of
human happiness confined to one race of men. So ear
ly as 1769, upon his first taking a seat in the legislature
of Virginia, he had the hardihood to rise amidst that
body of * inexorable planters, and propose a bill for the
* permission of the Emancipation of Slaves.

Whilst a member of the Continental Congress, he
made use of these remarkable words :

4 It can never be too often repeated, that the time for
fixing every essential right on a legal basis, is while our
rulers are honest, and ourselves united. From the con
clusion of this war we shall be going down hill. It will
not then be necessary to resort every moment to the people
for support. They will be forgotten, therefore, and their

X INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

rights disregarded. They will forget themselves but in
the sole faculty of making money, and will never think
of uniting to effect a due respect of their rights. The
shackles, therefore, which shall not he knocked off at
the conclusion of this war, will remain on us long, will
be made heavier and heavier, till our rights shall revive,
or expire, in a convulsion. 1

Many of us now see the truth of this prophecy
many of the present and of the coming generation may
see and feel it both.

Mr Jefferson was among the first to perceive the fal
lacy of sustaining individual rights at the expense of
the general welfare. With our English ancestors, the
first struggle for civil liberty, was to guard the property
of the private citizen against the encroachments of the
crown and of the nobility. All that was thus gained to
untitled individuals was considered as subtracted from
an arbitrary and irresponsible power, over which the
people possessed no control. With us, the government
is not an independent and irresponsible power, but the
agent of the people, and controlled by their will. There
is, therefore, and there can be, under our form of gov
ernment, no permanent usurpation on the part of those
who administer it, and from this source we have no ar
bitrary influence to apprehend that the ordinary remedy
of election may not effectually control.

The same right to acquired property which may be
indispensable to the private citizen, who needs a defence
against the usurpation of hereditary power, is not called
for under a republican government, where nothing can
be assumed by those in authority which does not imme
diately revert to the people. What Justice Blackstone,

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. XI

therefore, in speaking of the British constitution, might
correctly term a private right, would operate with us, as
a public wrong.

Many principles which we have adopted under the
name of individual or private rights, and which original
ly obtained as a necessary defence against arbitrary
power, are wholly inapplicable under our form of gov
ernment, and so far as persisted in, place individuals
and incorporated associations above the control of law,
and wholly independent of what is usually considered
the province of legislation. They are invested with pri
vileges that were created as a defence against abuses which
can have no existence in a free commonwealth.

That principle, therefore, which universally prevails,
and which is adopted and placed upon the most stable
foundation among us, the existing RIGHT to PROPERTY,
is in fact an arbitrary principle, with no foundation in
natural justice, having been originally set up to counteract
other and greater usurpations, and preserve something
like a balance of power in the miserable schemes of gov
ernment which have hitherto afflicted the human family.
The Right to Property, as now sustained to individuals,
and as in some measure aggravated by charters to asso
ciations, may be considered the only permanent usurpa
tion that can exist under our constitution. It tolerates
an inequality of possession that must forever prove fatal
to republicanism, and gives to a successful few as gall
ing a superiority over the multitude as could be confer
red by hereditary rank, or by any other usurpation that
prevails under more arbitrary forms of government.
Upon this subject the American people will soon re
quire a reform. They will eventually effect one. In

Xll INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

the mean time would it not be prudent that the best in
formed, the most judicious among us, should approach
this subject as a matter well deserving the consideration
of a free people, strip it of its borrowed sanctity, make
it a subject of rational inquiry, and place it, where it
has never yet been fairly recognized, within the pale of
Legislation.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

NATIVITY of Mr Jefferson. Peculiarity in the concealment of his
birth-day Motives of his conduct in this particular Reply to the
city authorities of Washington To Levi Lincoln, pp. 21, 22. Ge
nealogy of Mr Jefferson Peculiarity by which it was marked
Anecdote by Mr Madison. Character of his father. His early ed
ucation Critical position of his boyhood His juvenile mind and
habits Fondness for the classics For what qualities distinguished
in College, pp. 23-26. Circumstances which decided the particular
direction of his life. His character of Dr Small Of George Wythe.
Commences the study of Law Extent of his researches. His de
scription of the speech of Patrick Henry against the Stamp-act
Influence of that scene upon his subsequent career. Mottos of his
Seals, pp. 27-31. Enters the Practice of the Law Professional
celebrity. Qualifications as an Advocate, pp. 32-34.

CHAPTER II.

Mr Jefferson comes of age. Elected to the Legislature. His
first effort in that body for the Emancipation of Slaves Over
whelming defeat of the measure. Progress of the Revolution.
System of Non-intercourse adopted by the Colonies Its utility as
an engine of coercion. Retaliatory resolutions of the British Par
liament. Counter resolutions. Germ of the American Union.
Sudden dissolution of the Legislature. Jefferson and others rally a
private meeting at the Raleigh tavern. Influence of the revolu
tionary proceedings in Virginia, pp. 35-41. Apathy of the Colo
nistsHow viewed by Mr Jefferson. He devises measures for
arousing them. Private meeting to set the machinery in motion
2

XIV CONTENTS.

Committees of Correspondence established Agency of this measure
in promoting a General Congress. Legislature dissolved, pp. 42-46.
Committees of Correspondence appointed by the other Colonies.
News of the Boston Port Bill. Popular effervescence. Measures
set in motion by Mr Jefferson. Appointment of a general Fast in
Virginia Mr Jefferson s draft of the proclamation Effect of this
measure throughout the Colonies. Legislature again dissolved.
Association entered into by the members. Recommendation of a
General Congress, pp. 47-52.

CHAPTER III.

The other Colonies unite in the measure of a General Congress,
First democratic Convention in Virginia. Mr Jefferson elected a
member. Instructions proposed by him for the Congressional Del
egates Published by the Convention under the title of Summary
View of the Rights of British America Re-published by the Whigs
in Parliament -Bill of Attainder commenced against the author
The Convention virtually assumes the government of the colony,
pp. 53-60. Inequality of sentiment in the Convention. Grounds
taken by Mr Jefferson. Resolution for putting the Colony into a
state of warlike defence Its effect upon the older members Vio
lent debates ensue Conduct of the opposition on its passage. Mr
Jefferson elected a Delegate to Congress, pp. 61-65. Letter of Mr
J. to Dr Small, in England. The regal Legislature of Virginia
meets. Conciliatory Proposition of Lord North Mr Jefferson de
signated to prepare the answer. Flight of the royal Governor, pp.
66-71.

CHAPTER IV.

Mr Jefferson takes his seat in the Continental Congress. He
is appointed on the committee to prepare a Declaration of the
Causes of taking up arms Character of the document. Dispari
ty of sentiment in Congress. Extract from the War Manifesto,
pp. 72-75. Mr Jefferson designated to prepare the answer of
Congress to Lord North s Proposition. Re-elected to Congress.
His draught of a Preamble, Declaration of Rights, and Constitution

CONTENTS. XV

for Virginia. His opinion on the Constitution as adopted, and on
popular government in general, at this epoch, pp. 76-84. Virginia
instructs her Delegates in Congress to declare Independence. Pre
paratory steps of Congress. Mr Jefferson appointed to prepare an
animated Address. Introductory motion of Independence Power
ful resistance to the measure. Committee appointed to prepare a
Declaration of Independence Mr Jefferson designated to make the
draught His report, pp. 85-88. Vehement opposition to the De
claration Parts stricken out. The original instrument, with the
alterations. Reception of the Declaration by the people. Extracts
from his writings. Re-elected to Congress Reasons for declining
Retirement. Appointed Commissioner to France Declines.
Extract from his private memoranda, pp. 89-107.

CHAPTER V.

Mr Jefferson resumes his seat in the Virginia legislature. His
bill for establishing a Judiciary System For abolishing the Law of
Entails. Biases of Mr Jefferson against Aristocracy. His eulogi-
um upon agriculturists. View of his objects in repealing the law
of Entails. Preamble to the act, pp 108-112. His attack upon the
hierarchy. History of the Church establishment in Virginia. Re
sistance of the privileged order. Final success of his efforts Im
portance of this achievement. He introduces a bill for abolishing
the slave trade, pp. 113-119. He introduces a resolution for revis
ing the legal Code of Virginia Appointed, with others, to execute
the work. Project for a Dictator Resistance of Mr Jefferson.

Meeting of the revisors of the Laws Distribution of the labor

General propositions of Mr Jefferson Opinion of Mr Pendleton.
Letter to Dr Franklin. Passage of his bill for abolishing the Slave
traffic Older in which the example of Virginia was followed by
other States. Committee of Revisors complete their task, pp.
120-133.

CHAPTER VI.

Revisors report to the Legislature Opinion of Mr Madison on
the Revised Code Principal innovations by Mr J. His bill for
abrogating the right of Primogeniture Opposition of the aristocra-

XVI CONTENTS.

cy. Bill for the establishment of Religious Freedom, pp. 134-140.
Bill for the Emancipation of Slaves Extracts from his writings.
His Criminal Code Extent of its innovations on the prevailing
system Amendments proposed by him Passed. His Bill for the
General Diffusion of Knowledge Fate of the Bill in the Legisla
ture. Remarks on the general merits of the Revised Code. Re
moval of Burgoyne s troops to Charlottesville, pp. 141-150.

CHAPTER VII.

Mr Jefferson elected Governor. He institutes retaliatory measures
on British prisoners Remonstrance of the British General His
reply Approbation of the Commander in Chief. Effect of his poli
cy upon the enemy. His measures for extending the western es
tablishments of Virginia Success. Virginia cedes her unappro
priated territory to the United States Effect of this measure, pp.
157-164. Re-elected Governor. Distressing situation of Virginia.
Extraordinary powers conferred on the Governor. Invasion of the
State under Gen. Leslie. Invasion under Arnold. Capture of the
metropolis. Attempt to seize Arnold. Invasion of Virginia by
Cornwallis. Governor s appeal to the Commander in Chief for
aid. Mr Jefferson declines a re-election. Closing events of his
administration. Approbatory resolution of the Legislature. Tarl-
ton s attack on Monticello. Story of Carter s mountain. Narrow
escape of Mr Jefferson, pp. 165-178. Writes his Notes on Virginia.
His comparison of American genius with that of Europe Remarks
on the Constitution of Virginia on Slavery on Free Inquiry in
Religion. Appointed a Commissioner to negotiate peace. His pur
suits in retirement. Description of him by a traveller, pp. 179-194.

CHAPTER VIII.

Re-elected to Congress. Washington s resignation of the com
mand of the army Description of the ceremony. Appointed chair
man of the committee on the ratification of the treaty of Peace
Debates. Contentious character of Congress, pp. 195-199. Ap
pointed to draught a system of Uniform Currency for the United
States, and establish a Money Unit Adoption of his plan. Is chair
man of a committee to revise the treasury Department to draught

CONTENTS. XV11

a Plan of Government for the Western Territories. On a commit
tee of retrenchment of locating and disposing the Western lands.
Measures taken by Congress for investing the General Government
with exclusive power to regulate Commerce, pp. 200-205. He
submits a proposition for appointing a Committee of the States,
to serve during the recesses of Congress Subsequent failure of the
scheme; humorous anecdote of Doctor Franklin. General Wash
ington consults him on the Cincinnati institution. Appointed Min
ister Plenipotentiary, with Franklin and Adams, pp. 206-213.

CHAPTER IX.

Accepts the appointment of Minister to Europe *- Arrival in
France. Mr Adams joins his colleagues at Paris. General form
of treaty. Result of the conference with the French Minister.
Result of their propositions to the several Powers of Europe, pp.
214-218. Appointed Resident Minister at the Court of Versailles
Reception at that court. Visit to London Reception at the
Court of St James. His tribute to La Fayette, and the Count de
Vergennes. His project to engage the principal European Powers
against the Piratical States Letter to Mr Adams His proposals
Their reception, pp. 219-225. His measures for securing the for
eign credit of the United States Visit to Holland. Extracts, on
the state of society, &c, in Europe. Insurrections in America
How viewed by him. ( Extracts from his letters to America. Move
ments in the United States for forming a Constitution Agency of
Mr Jefferson. His opinions on the new Constitution. His in
fluence in producing the amendments, pp. 226-245. Proposed
abandonment of the Mississippi Letter to Mr Madison. He intro
duces into the Southern States upland cotton and the olive tree.
Tour through France and Italy Extracts. His scientific and lite
rary efforts in France. Endeavors to improve the architecture of
the United States, pp. 246-256. Opening scenes of the French
Revolution. His Letter, accompanied with a Charter of Rights
Consultation at his house Apology Character of the Queen.
Departure, and Farewell tribute to France. Arrival in Virginia.
Receives the appointment of Secretary of State. Arrival at the
Seat of Government, pp. 257-267.

XV111 CONTENTS.

CHAPTER X.

Political elements of Washington s cabinet. Hamilton, Adams,
and Knox. Extensive duties of the State Department. His Re
port on Coins, &c. Its outlines. Report on the Cod and Whale
Fisheries ; its general features. Report on Commerce and Naviga
tion, pp. 268-275. His duties as to foreign affairs. Extracts from
his instructions to our minister in Spain, on the Navigation of the
Mississippi, &c. His controversy with Mr Hammond. Instruc
tions to our minister at London on Impressment. Intemperate
character of the French minister. Request for his recall decided
upon. Mr Jefferson s retirement from the Cabinet, pp. 276-288.

CHAPTER XL

View of Mr Jefferson in retirement, &c. Extracts from his
works. Appointed President of the Amer. Philo. Society ; his an
swer. Question of a successor to Washington agitated Character
of the contest. Election of Adams, pp. 289-293.

CHAPTER XII.

Mr Jefferson s arrival as Vice President, and precaution to elude
ceremony. Determination regarding executive consultations. Sep
aration between him and the President. Parties bring out their
candidates for the Presidency. Character of the contest. Licen
tiousness of the Press against Jefferson. Notice of some of the
principal libels on his character; his singular passiveness. Extract
from his works. Result of the election by the people. Constitu
tional difficulty. Election scenes in the House, pp. 294-302.

CHAPTER XIII.

Inauguration of Jefferson. Description of the ceremony. Inau
gural address. Formation of the Cabinet. Removal of officers,
and rules of action. Private rescript of reform meditated by him.
Abolition of levees. Anecdote of Washington. Rule of receiving
company, pp. 303-308. Principle of reform. Reduction of the
army and navy ; abolition of superfluous offices, &c. Measures of

CONTENTS. XIX

the President relating to the international code of mankind. Chas
tisement of the Mediterranean pirates. His first annual message.
Propositions of reform. Effect of the proposition to abolish inter
nal taxes, and his private explanation, pp. 309-318. System of
finance adopted by the President. Measures adopted by him for the
Purchase of Louisiana. Ratification of the treaty. Policy of the
Executive towards the Indians Towards foreign nations. His views
on commerce, treaties and alliances. Rejection of the treaty nego
tiated with Great Britain. Opinions of the President on the Navy.
Letter of John Adams to him, and reply. Gun Boats, pp. 319-342.
Re-elected. jSecond inaugural address. His views on the most eli
gible arrangement of the Tariff after the discharge of the public
debt, and on the distribution of the surplus revenue. Conspiracy
of Burr; his designs, and trial. Immovable tenure of the Judicia
ry. Correspondence of Jefferson on the subject. Foreign rela
tions of the United States. .Embargo. Impressment. Attack on
the Chesapeake. Causes of opposition to the Embargo, pp. 343-
355. Policy of the President on the Freedom of Speech, and the
Press Anecdote. He discharges those suffering under the Sedi
tion law. Refuses to permit prosecutions for libels against himself.
His policy on Freedom of Religion. His personal religious observ
ances. Review of the minor traits of his administration. Exam
ples of his simplicity and disinterestedness, pp. 356-361. Private
labors, &c, of the President. His syllabus of the doctrines of
Christianity. Correspondence with literary men, and different so
cieties in Europe. Efforts for the introduction of Vaccination.
His labors on colonization. Improvements bestowed on the city of
Washington. Anecdote of Bonaparte. Urgency of the people for
his second re-election, pp. 362-368. Extracts from his letters.
Retires to private life. Gratulations of the people. His reply to
the citizens of Washington. He declines all ceremony. Address
of the citizens of his native county His affecting reply. Farewell
address of the Virginia Legislature, pp. 369-375.

CHAPTER XIV.

His retirement. His principal objects of employment. Hi;
OPINIONS On the Constitution, and popular Rights On the

XX CONTENTS.

Relative Powers of the General and State governments On the
Relative Powers of the three branches of the General government
On Internal Improvement, constructive powers, &c. On Domestic
Manufactures On the Laboring Classes, Agriculture On the Na
tional Bank On Political Parties His character of the Sovereigns
of Europe His portraiture of General Washington On Religion
On the Loss of Friends. On the Studies of young men On
Rules for the regulation of their moral conduct. His Physical Hab
its, pp. 376-395. His system of employment in retirement. De
scription of Monticello. Portraiture of Mr Jefferson, by a guest.
Number of letters received by him. Treachery of correspondents.
His efforts to revive ancient affections between Mr Adams and
himself. Receives a friendly opening from Mr Adams. Letter to
Dr Rush. Correspondence with Adams. Extracts, pp. 396-413.
University of Virginia His agency, and leading object in its es
tablishment. State of his finances. Alarming state of his health.
Letter to the mayor of Washington. Particulars of his last hours.
Extraordinary circumstances of his death. Epitaph by himself, pp.
414-431.

LIFE

OF

THOMAS JEFFERSON

CHAPTER I.

THOMAS JEFFERSON was born April 2d, 1743, on the
farm called Shadwell, adjoining Monticello, in the coun
ty of Albermarle, Virginia. The date of his nativity was
unknown to the public until after his decease. Repeated
attempts had been made to ascertain it, by formal appli
cations to him on various occasions, both by individuals
and public bodies; but from scruples of a patriotic nature,
he always declined revealing it, and enjoined the same
privacy upon his family. The principles which deter
mined him on this subject, were the great indelicacy and
impropriety of permitting himself to be made the recipi
ent of a homage, so incompatible with the true dignity
and independence of the republican character ; and the
still greater repugnance which he should feel, at seeing
the birth-day honors of the Republic transferred, in any
3

22 *. . LIrFE OF .

degree, to any individual. Soon after his inauguration
in 1801, he was waited on by the Mayor and Corporation
of the city of Washington, with the request that he would
communicate the anniversary of his birth, as they were
desirous of commemorating an event which had confer
red such distinguished glory upon their country. He
replied, The only birth-day which I recognize, is that
of my country s liberties. In August, 1803, he received
I a similar communication from Levi Lincoln, in behalf of
a certain association in Boston ; to which he replied:
Disapproving myself of transferring the honors and
veneration for the great birth-day of our Republic, to any
individual, or of dividing them with individuals, I have
declined letting my own birth-day be known, and have
engaged my family not to communicate it. This has
been the uniform answer to every application of the kind.
On the paternal side, Mr Jefferson could number no
titles to high or ancient lineage. His ancestors, however,
were of solid respectability, and among the first settlers
of Virginia. They emigrated to this country from Wales,
and from near the mountain of Snowden. His grand
father was the first of whom we have any particular in
formation. He had three sons ; Thomas, who died young;
Field, who resided on the waters of the Roanoke, and
left numerous descendants ; and Peter, the father of the
subject of these memoirs, who settled in Albemarle
county, on the lands called Shadwell. He was the third
or fourth settler in that region of the country. They
were all gentlemen of property and influence in the col
ony.

But the chief glory of Mr Jefferson s genealogy was
1 the sturdy contempt of hereditary honors and distinctions,
I with which the whole race was imbued. It was a strong
; genealogical feature, pervading all the branches of the
primitive stock, and forming a remarkable head and con
centration in the individual who was destined to confer
immortality upon the name. With him, indeed, if there

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 23

was any one sentiment which predominated in early life,
and which lost none of its rightful ascendency through a >
long career of enlightened and philanthropic effort, it r
was that of the natural equality of all men in their rights
and wants ; and of the nothingness of those pretensions
which * are gained without merit and forfeited without
crime. The boldness with which, on his first entrance
into manhood, he attacked and overthrew the deep rooted
institutions of Primogeniture and Entails, forms a stri
king commentary upon this attribute of his character.
An anecdote is related by Mr Madison, which is no less
apposite and striking. During the infant stages of our
separate sovereignty, the slowness with which the wheels,
of government moved, and the awkwardness of its forms,
were everywhere the prominent topics of conversation.
On one occasion, at which Mr JeiFerson was present, a
question being started concerning the best mode of pro
viding the executive chief, it was among other opinions,
gravely advanced that an hereditary designation was
preferable to any elective process that could be devised.
At the close of an eloquent effusion against the agitations
and animosities of a popular choice, and in favor of birth,
as on the whole affording a better chance for a suitable
head of the government, Mr Jefferson with a smile re
marked, that he had heard of a University someiohere, in
which the Professorship of Mathematics was hereditary !

His father, Peter Jefferson, was born February 29th,
1707-3 ; and intermarried in 1739 with Jane Randolph
of the age of 19, daughter of Isham Randolph, one of
the seven sons of that name and family settled at Dun-
geoness in Goochland county, who trace their pedigree
far back in England and Scotland ; to which, says Mr
Jefferson, * let every one ascribe the faith and merit he
chooses. He was a self-educated man ; but rose steadily
by his own exertions, and acquired considerable distinc
tion. He was commissioned, jointly with Joshua Fry,
professor of mathematics in William and Mary College,

24 LIFE OF

to designate the boundary line between Virginia and
North-Carolina ; and was afterwards employed, with the
same gentleman, to construct the first regular map of
Virginia. He died August 17, 1757, leaving a widow,
with six daughters, and two sons, of whom Thomas was
the elder. To both the sons he left large estates ; to
Thomas the Shadwell lands, where he was born, and
which included Monticello ; to his brother the estate on
James river, called Snowden, after the reputed birth
place of the family. The mother of Mr Jefferson sur
vived to the fortunate year of 1776, the most memorable
epoch in the annals of her country, and in the life of her
son.

At the age of five, Thomas was placed by his father at
/ an English school, where he continued four years; at the
f expiration of which, he was transferred to a latin school,
where he remained five years, under the tuition of Mr
Douglass, a clergyman from Scotland. With the rudi
ments of the latin and Greek languages, he acquired at
the same time, a knowledge of the French. At this pe
riod his father died, leaving him an orphan only fourteen
years of age, and without a relative or friend competent
to direct or advise him.

An interesting reminiscence of this critical period of
his boyhood, and of the simple moral process by which
he subdued and wrought into instruments of the greatest
good, the perilous circumstances of his position, is con
tained in an affectionate letter, written more than fifty
years afterwards, to his grandson then in Philadelphia.
It is replete with sound admonition, applicable to every
condition of youth, besides affording an insight into the
juvenile mind and habits of the writer.

Your situation, thrown at such a distance from us
and alone, cannot but give us all great anxieties for you.
As much has been secured for you by your particular
position and the acquaintance to which you have been
recommended, as could be done towards shielding you

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 25

from the dangers which surround you. But thrown on
a wide world, among entire strangers, without a friend
or guardian to advise, so young too, and with so little
experience of mankind, your dangers are great, and still
your safety must rest on yourself. A determination never
to do what is wrong, prudence, and good humor, will go
far towards securing to you the estimation of the world.
When I recollect that at fourteen years of age, the whole
care and direction of myself was thrown on myself en
tirely, without a relation or friend qualified to advise or
guide me, and recollect the various sorts of bad company
with which I associated from time to time, I am astonished
I did not turn off with some <rf them, and become as
worthless to society as^ they were. I had the good fortune
to become acquainted very early with some characters of
very high standing, and to feel the incessant wish that I
could ever become what they were. Under temptations
and difficulties, I would ask myself what would Dr -Small,
Mr Wythe, Peyton Randolph, do in this situation?
What course in it will ensure rne their approbation ? I
am certain that this mode of deciding on my conduct,
tended more to its correctness than any reasoning powers
I possessed. Knowing the even and dignified line they
pursued, I could never doubt for a moment which of two
courses_would |^gjn character for them. Whereas, seek
ing the same object through a process of moral reasoning,
and with the jaundiced eye of youth, I should often have
erred. From the circumstances of my position, I was
often thrown into the society of horse-racers, card-play
ers, fox hunters, scientific and professional men, and of dig
nified men; and many a time have I asked myself, in the
enthusiastic moment of the death of a fox, the victory of
a favorite horse, the issue of a question eloquently argued
at the bar, or in the great council of the nation, well,
which of these kinds of reputation should I prefer ? That
of a horse-jockey ? a fox-hunter? an orator? or the honest
advocate of my country s rights ? Be assured, my dear
Jefferson, that these little returns into ourselves, this
self-catechising habit, is not trifling, nor useless, but

\leads to the prudent selection and steady pursuit of what

iis right.

On the death of his father, Mr Jefferson was placed
3*

26 LIFE OF

under the instruction of the Rev Mr Maury, to complete
the necessary preparation for college. He continued
with Mr Maury two years; and then (1760) at the age
of seventeen he entered the college of William and Mary,
at which he was graduated, two years after, with the
highest honors of the institution.

While in college he was more remarkable for solidity
than sprightliness of intellect. His faculties were so
even and well balanced, that no particular endowment
appeared pre-eminent. His course was not marked by
any of those eccentricities which often presage the rise
^ of extraordinary gerifus ; but by that constancy of pursuit,
J that inflexibility of purpose, that bold spirit of inquiry,
and thirst for knowledge, which are the surer prognostics
of future greatness. His habits were those of patience
and severe application, which, aided by a quick and vig
orous apprehension, a talent of close arid logical combi
nation, and a retentive memory, laid the foundation suf
ficiently broad and strong for those extensive acquisitions
j which he subsequently made. The mathematics were
* his favorite study, and in them he particularly excelled.
Nevertheless, he distinguished himself in-all the branches
of education embraced in the established course of that
college. To his devotion to philosophy and science, he
\ united an exquisite taste for the fine arts. In those of
architecture, painting and sculpture, he made himself
such an adept as to be afterwards accounted one of the
best critics of the age. For music he had an uncommon
passion; and his hours of relaxation were passed in exer
cising his skill upon the violin, for which he evinced an
early and extravagant predilection. His fondness for
the ancient classics strengthened continually with his
strength, insomuch that it is said he scarcely passed a
day, in after life, without reading a portion of them.
The same remark is applicable to his passion for the
mathematics. He became so well acquainted with both
V the great languages of antiquity as to read them with

THOMAS JEFFERSON.

ease ; and so far perfected himself in French as to be-\ (
,-come familiar with it, which was, subsequently, of essen-\
tial service to him in his diplomatic labors. He could \
read and speak the Italian language, and had a compe-
tent knowledge of the Spanish. He also made himself
master of the Anglo-Saxon, as a root of the English, and j
an element in legal philology.

The acquaintances he happily formed in college pro
bably determined the cast and direction of his ambition.
These were the first characters in the whole province ;
among whom, he has placed on record the names of
three individuals who were particularly instrumental in
fixing his future destinies : viz. Dr Small, one of the pro
fessors in college, t who made him his daily compan
ion; Gov. Fauquier, the ablest man who had ever filled
that office, to whose acquaintance and familiar table
he was admitted ; and George Wythe, his faithful and
beloved mentor in youth, and his most affectionate friend
through life.

4 It was, says he, * my great good fortune, and what
probably fixed the destinies of my life, that Dr William
Small, of Scotland, was then professor of mathematics,
a man profound in most of the useful branches of science, y
with a happy talent of communication, correct and gen- \
tlemanly manners, and an enlarged and liberal mind.
He most happily for me, became soon attached to me,
and made me his daily companion when not engaged in
the school ; and from his conversation I got my first
views of the expansion of science, and of the system of,
things in which we are placed. Fortunately, the philo
sophical chair became vacant soon after my arrival at
college, and he was appointed to fill it per interim; and
he was the first who ever gave, in that college, regular
lectures in Ethics, Rhetoric, and Belles Lettres.

To Governor Fauquier, with whom he was in habits
of intimacy, is also ascribed a high character. With
the exception of an unfortunate passion for gaming, he
was every thing that could have been wished for by Vir-

28 LIFE OF

ginia, under the royal government. With him, con
tinues Mr Jefferson, and at his table, Dr Small and Mr
Wythe, his amid omnium horarum, and myself, formed a\
partie quarree, and to the habitual conversations on these
occasions, I owed much instruction.

Gyetfrge "Wydie was emphatically a second father to
oung Jefferson. He was born about the year 1727, on the
shores of the Chesapeake. His education had been neg
lected by his parents ; and himself had led an idle and volup-

/ tuous life until the age of thirty ; but by an extraordinary
effort of self-recovery at that point of time, he overcame

both the want and the waste of early advantages. He
was one of the foremost of the Virginia patriots during

\ the revolution ; and one of the highest legal, legislative,

\and judicial characters which that State has furnished.
iHe was early elected to the House of Delegates, then
cklled the House of Burgesses, and continued in it until
transferred to Congress, in 1775. He was one of the
signers of the Declaration of Independence, of which he
had been an eminent supporter. The same year he was
appointed by the Legislature of Virginia, one of the
celebrated committee to revise the laws of the State.
In 1777, he was chosen Speaker of the House of Dele
gates ; and the same year was appointed Chancellor
of the State, an office which he held until his death, in
1806, a period of thirty years.

( No man, says Mr Jefferson, ever left behind him a
character more venerated than George Wythe. His
virtue was of the purest tint; his integrity inflexible, and
his justice exact ; of warm patriotism, and, devoted as
he was to liberty, and the natural and equal rights of
man, he might truly be called the Cato of his country,
without the avarice of the Roman ; for a more disinter
ested person never lived. Temperance and regularity
in all his habits gave him general good health, and his
unaffected modesty and suavity of manners endeared him
to every one. He was of easy elocution, his language
chaste, methodical in the arrangement of his matter,

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 29

learned and logical in the use of it, and of great urbanity
in debate ; not quick of apprehension, but, with a little
time, profound in penetration, and sound in conclusion.
In philosophy he was firm, and neither troubling, nor
perhaps trusting, any one with his religious creed, he
left the world to the conclusion, that that religion must be
good which could produce a life of such exemplary virtue.
His stature was of the middle size, well formed and pro
portioned, and the features of his face were manly,
comely, and engaging. Such was George Wythe, the
honor of his own, and the model of future times.

Immediately on leaving college, Mr Jefferson engaged V
in the study of the Law, under the direction of Mr
Wythe. Here, it is said, he became thoroughly acquaint
ed with the civil and common law; exploring every topic,
and fathoming every principle. Here also, he is said to
have acquired that facility, neatness, and order in busi
ness, which gave him in effect, the hundred hands of
Briareus. With such a guide, and in such a school, all
the rudiments of intellectual greatness could not fail of
being stirred into action. The occasion was not long
wanting to display the master passion of his nature in
bold and prominent relief.

/ At the time when his faculties were strengthened by
/manhood, an incident occurred, which fixed them in their y
I meditated sphere, and kindled his native ardor into a A
* flame.

That was the celebrated speech of Patrick Henry, |/(
on the memorable resolutions of 1765, against the
Stamp-Act. Young Jefferson listened to the bold,
grand, and overwhelming eloquence of the orator of na
ture ; the effect of which seerns never to have lost its
sorcery over his mind. More than fifty years after
wards he reverts to it with all the vividness of the first
impression. He appeared to me, says he, to speak as
Homer wrote. The effect was indeed tremendous. It
struck even that veteran and dignified assembly aghast.
The resolutions were moved by Henry > and seconded

30 LIFE OF

by Mr Johnston. They were resisted by the whole mo
narchical body of the House of Burgesses, as a matter
of course. Besides, they were deemed so ill advised in
point of time, as to rally in opposition to them all the
old members, including such men as Peyton Randolph,
Wythe, Pendleton, Nicholas, Bland, &c, honest patriots,
whose influence in the House, had till then been un
broken. But, says Jefferson, torrents of sublime elo
quence from Henry, backed by the solid reasoning of
Johnston, prevailed. The last, however, and strongest
resolution, was carried but by a single vote. The debate
on it was most bloody. I was then but a student, and stood
at the door of communication between the house andthe
lobby during the whole debate and vote ; and I well re
member, that, after the numbers, on the division, were
told and declared from the chair, Peyton Randolph, the
Attorney-General, came out at the door where I was

standing, and said, as he entered the lobby, " by , I

would have given 500 guineas for a single vote : for one
vote would have divided the House, and Robinson was
in the chair, who he knew would have negatived the
resolution." ! It was in the midst of this magnificent
appeal that Henry is said to have exclaimed, in a voice
of thunder, Caesar had his Brutus Charles the First
his Cromwell and George the Third ("Treason,"
cried the Speaker "treason, treason," echoed from
every part of the House. Henry faultered not ; but
rising to a loftier attitude, and fixing a determined eye
on the Speaker, finished his sentence with the firmest
emphasis,) may profit by their example. If this be treason
make the most of it. * I well remember, says Jeffer
son, the cry of treason, the pause of Henry at the name
of George the Third, and the presence of mind with
which he closed his sentence, and baffled the vociferated
charge.

The grandeur of that scene, and the triumphant eclat

* Wirt s Life of Patrick Henry, page G5.

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 31

of Henry, made the heart of young Jefferson ache for
the propitious moment which should enrol him among
of pf>rsf p1ltpA > hlirnnnit y The tone and

strength of his mind, at tfiis early period, are indicated
by those emphatic mottos which he selected- for his seals :
* Ab eo tibertas, a quo spiritusS and Resistance to tyrants
is obedience to God. 1 These mottos attracted great at-v
tention, and were regarded as prophetic of his destiny.
They are well remembered to this day by the aged inhab
itants of Virginia. The seals themselves are preserved
as sacred relics, by the family of Mr Jefferson ; and ac
curate impressions of them in wax have been obtained
by his particular friends in various parts of the country.

Various attempts have been made to ascertain the
birth of opinions on the subject of American Independ
ence ; and to fix the precise epoch, and the particular
individual, when and with whom the stupendous concep
tion originated. The enquiry has been attended with
no success, and is from the nature of the case incapable
of solution. It is evident that the measure did not result
from any deliberate and preconcerted design on the part
of one, or of any number of individuals ; but from a
combination of causes, growing for the most part out of
the mistaken policy of the British Parliament, and fos
tered and matured by its unyielding obstinacy. It was
the slow and legitimate growth of political oppression,
assisted it is true, by the great advance of certain minds
beyond the general step of the age. To use the phrase
ology of Mr Jefferson, it would be as difficult to say at
what moment the revolution began, and what incident
set it in motion, as to fix the moment that the embryo
becomes an animal, or the act which gives him a begin
ning.

It is certain that if this subject were examined with
reference to its bearing upon a Jefferson, it might with
equal propriety be advanced, that in those pointed inscrip
tions which he selected in the fire of youth as the mottos

32 LIFE OF

of his seals, we discover the germ, not merely of Ameri
can emancipation but of European revolution, and of
the general amelioration of associated man throughout
the world. The revolution itself was but a preparatory
movement. The mere separation of the colonies from
the mother country, was but the introductory stage of
the grand and fundamental change through which they
were to pass to derive any essential advantages from the
act to wit, the entire abrogation of royalty, and sub
stitution of self-government. Nay, even this magnificent
result was but the first chapter in the history of the great
moral and political regeneration which is advancing
over the earth, and to which the revolution gave the
primary impulse. Unless contemplated in the broad
light of a contrast of principle, between the advocates of
republican and those of kingly government, into which
it finally resolved itself, it is of little importance to en
quire what incident gave it birth, or who set it in motion.
Stopping at the point at which many, who were the
boldest at the outset, evidently wished it to stop, and with
honest motives, the Revolution would have been nothing
more, in effect, than transferring the government to
other hands, without putting it into other forms ; and no
change would have been wrought in the political condi
tion of the world. It would have been merely a spirited
and successful rebellion, or rather a struggle for power,
like that which long embroiled the royal races of the
Plantagenets, Tudors, and Stuarts, terminating at best
in a limited modification of the old system, and most
likely in its entire adoption, substituting George or John
the First in the place of George the Third.

The solution of the problem, therefore, if practicable,
would afford no criterion of the relative advance of the
leading minds of that period. But the question becomes
a rational one, and assumes a powerful interest, if pre
sented in its proper aspect, with whom those eternal rules
of political reason and right originated, which crowned

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 33

with glory and immortality the American Revolution,
making it one in substance as well as form ? To whom
belongs the honor of conceiving the grand project that
gave to those detached fragments of empire which formed
the nucleus of the American nation, not only shape and
organization, but a new projectile impulse, to revolve in
an untried orbit, under the control of a new equilibrium
of forces 1 Viewing the subject under these, its moral
phases, it becomes of some consequence to ascertain the
origin and progress of individual opinions.

In 1767, Mr Jefferson was inducted into the practice
of the Law, at the bar of the General Court, under the
auspices of his preceptor and friend, Mr Wythe. He
brought with him into practice the whole body of ancient
and modern jurisprudence, text and commentary, from
its rudest monuments in Anglo-Saxon, to its latest deposi
tories in the vernacular tongue, well systematised in his
his mind, and ready for use at a moment s warning. But
his professional career was brief, and not favored with
any occasion adequate to disclose the fitness of his
technical preparation, or the extent of his abilities as an
advocate. The out-breaking of the Revolution, which
occasioned a general abandonment of the Courts of Jus
tice, followed close upon his introduction to the bar ;
and ushered him upon a broader and more diversified
theatre of action.

During the short interval he spent in his profession,
he acquired considerable celebrity ; but his forensic re
putation was so disproportionate to his general pre-emi
nence, as to have occasioned the common impression, that
he was deficient in the requisite qualifications for a suc
cessful practitioner at the bar. That this was not the
case, however, we have the authority of a gentleman,*
whose opportunities of information and well known trust
worthiness are a pledge of the literal accuracy of his
statement. Permit me, says he, to correct an error

* William Wirt.

34 LIFE OP

which seems to have prevailed. It has been thought
that Mr Jefferson made no figure at the bar : but the
case was far otherwise. There are still extant, in his
own fair and neat hand, in the manner of his mas
ter, a number of arguments which were delivered by him
at the bar upon some of the most intricate questions of
the law; which, if they shall ever see the light, will vin
dicate his claims to the first honors of the profession.

Again, we have the authority of the same gentleman
upon another interesting point. It will be new to the
reader to learn that Mr Jefferson was any thing of a
popular orator. It is true, continues the writer, he
was not distinguished in popular debate ; why he was
not so, has often been matter of surprise to those who
have seen his eloquence on paper, and heard it in con
versation. He had all the attributes of the mind, and
the heart, and the soul, which are essential to eloquence
of the highest order. The only defect was a physical one :
he wanted volume and compass of voice for a large de
liberative assembly ; and his voice, from the excess of
his sensibility, instead of rising with his feelings and
conceptions, sunk under their pressure, and became gut-
teral and inarticulate. The consciousness of this infir
mity repressed any attempt in a large body, in which he
knew he must fail. But his voice was all sufficient for
the purposes of judicial debate ; and there is no reason
to doubt, that if the services of his country had not call
ed him away so soon from his profession, his fame as a
lawyer, would now have stood upon the same distinguish
ed ground which he confessedly occupies as a statesman,
an author, and a scholar.

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 35

CHAPTER II.

MR JEFFERSON came of age in 1764. He had scarcely
arrived at his majority, when he was placed in the nomi
nation of Justices for the county in which he lived ; and
at the first election following, was chosen one of its Re
presentatives to the Legislature.

He took his seat in that body in May, 1769, and dis
tinguished himself at once by an effort of philanthropy,
to which the steady process of liberal opinions for sixty
years has not brought the tone of public sentiment ; at
least, so far as to reconcile the majority to the personal
sacrifices which it involves. The moral intrepidity that
could prompt him, a new member, and one of the
youngest in the House, to rise from his seat with the
composure of a martyr, and propose amidst a body of
inexorable planters, a bill i for the permission of the
Emancipation of Slaves? gave an unequivocal earnest of
his future career. He was himself a slave holder, and
from the immense inheritance to which he had succeeded,
probably one of the largest in the House. He knew too,
that it was a measure of peculiar odium, running coun
ter to the strongest interests, and most intractable preju
dices of the ruling population ; that it would draw upon
him the keen resentments of the wealthy and the great,
who alone held the keys of honor and preferment at
home, besides banishing forever all hope of a favorable
consideration with the government. In return for this
array of sacrifices, he saw nothing await him but the
satisfaction of an approving conscience, and the distant

36 LIFE OF

commendation of an impartial posterity. He could have
no possible motive but the honor of his country, and the
gratification of his own benevolence.

The announcement of the proposition gave a shock to
the aristocracy of the House. It touched their sensibili
ties at a most irritable point, and was rejected by a sud-
en and overwhelming vote. Yet the courteous and
conciliatory account which Mr Jefferson has left of the
transaction, ascribes the failure of the bill to the vicious
and despotic influence of the government, which, by its
unceasing frown, overawed every attempt at reform,
rather than to any moral depravation of the members
themselves. Our minds, says he, were circumscribed
within narrow limits, by an habitual belief that it was
our duty to be subordinate to the mother country in all
matters of government, to direct all our labors in sub
servience to her interests, and even to observe a bigoted
intolerance for all religions but hers. The difficulties
with our Representatives were of habit and despair, not
of reflection and conviction. Experience soon proved
that they could bring their minds to rights, on the first
summons of their attention.

Indeed, under the regal government, how was it possi
ble to expect success in any thing liberal. The Crown
had directly or indirectly the appointment of all officers
of consequence, even those chiefly of the ordinary Legis
lature. The King s Council, as they were called, who
acted as an Upper House, held their places at the Royal
will, and cherished a most humble obedience to that will ;
the Governor too, who had a negative on the laws, held
by the same tenure, and with still greater devotedriess to
it : and last of all, the royal negative, which formed the
rear-guard to the whole, barred the final pass to every
project of melioration. So wanton, indeed, was the ex
ercise of this power in the hands of his Majesty, that for
the most trifling reason, and sometimes for no conceiva
ble reason at all, he refused his assent to laws of the

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 37

most salutary tendency. Nay, the single interposition
of an interested individual against a law, was scarcely
ever known to fail of success, though in the opposite
scale were placed the interests of a whole country.

This was Mr Jefferson s first measure of reform ; and
although rendered abortive, it was but the beginning of
a long series of efforts, partly successful, in the same
benevolent cause. It was the first public movement
which he had the honor to originate, and the one,
probably, whose spirit and object were most congenial
to his heart. A few years after his legislative debut in
the cause of slavery, we find him dilating with enthusiasm
upon the same subject, in flying Notes to M. de Mar-
bois of the French legation, and recording that vehe
ment and appalling admonition which recent events have
almost ripened into prophecy :

* Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when
we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in
the minds of the people, that these liberties are of the
gift of God 1 That they are not to be violated but with
his wrath ? Indeed, I tremble for my country, when I
reflect that God is just ; that his justice cannot sleep
forever : that considering numbers, nature and natural
means only, a revolution in the wheel of fortune, an ex
change of situation is among possible events ; that it
may become probable by supernatural interference !
The Almighty has no attribute which can take side with
us in such a contest.

The business of ordinary legislation was drawing to a
close in Virginia, The collision between Great Britain
and her colonies, had arrived at a crisis which suspend
ed the regular action of government, and summoned
the attention of its functionaries to more imperious con
cerns. Patrick Henry, who was seven years older than
Mr Jefferson, and three or four ahead of him in public
life, had hitherto been the master-spirit of the Revolu
tion at the South ; and had sustained its principal brunt
by his superior firmness. The time had how arrived,
4*

38 LIFE OF

when he was to divide the burthen and the glory of the
distinction, with one who was his junior only in years
and eloquence, his equal in moral courage, but in every
thing else his superior. The session of the Legislature
that first saw Mr Jefferson a member, saw him first also
in the little council of the brave. The same session
(1769) carried Virginia into a new mode of resistance
to British tyranny, which he was chiefly instrumental
in establishing to wit, the system of non-intercourse,
by which the colonies gradually dissolved all commercial
connection with the mother country.

The unequivocal attitude into which Virginia had
thrown herself, by the opposition to the Stamp Act,
which she headed in 65, was imitated with rapidity by
all the other colonies ; which raised the general tone
of resentment to such a height, as made Great Britain
herself quail before the tempest she had excited. The
Stamp Act was repealed ; but its repeal was soon fol
lowed by a series of parliamentary and executive acts,
equally unconstitutional and oppressive. Among these,
were the declaratory act of a right in the British Par
liament to tax the colonies in all cases ; the quartering
of large bodies of British soldiery in the principal towns
of the colonies, at the expense and to the annoyance of
the inhabitants ; the dissolution, in rapid succession, of
the Colonial Assemblies, and the total suspension of the
legislative power in New York ; the imposition of du
ties on all teas, glass, paper, and other of the most ne
cessary articles imported into the colonies, and the ap
pointment of commissioners, armed with excessive pow
ers, to be stationed in the several ports for the purpose
of exacting the arbitrary customs. These measures,
with others of a similar character provoked immediate
retaliation in the commercial Provinces. The people
of Massachusetts, upon whom they fell with their first
and heaviest pressure, were the foremost in resisting
their operation. They entered into an association, by

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 39

which they agreed and bound themselves, not to im
port from Great Britain any of the articles taxed,
or to use them. They also addressed a circular letter
to their sister colonies, inviting their concurrence and
co-operation in all lawful and constitutional means for
procuring relief. Petitions, memorials, and remon
strances were accordingly addressed to the King and
Parliament by the Legislatures of the different colonies,
entreating a revision of the obnoxious measures, and
blending with their entreaties professions of unwavering
loyalty. To these no answer was ever vouchsafed. Yet
the non-intercourse proceedings in Massachusetts were
of a character too ruinous to the new revenue bill, not
to excite the attention of the British Court. They im
mediately called forth a set of joint resolutions, and an
address from the Lords and Commons. These resolu
tions condemned in the severest terms, all the measures
adopted by the colonies. They re-asserted the right of
taxation, and of quartering their troops upon the colo
nies. They even went so far as to direct that the King
might employ force of arms sufficient to quell the dis
obedient ; and declared that he had the right to cause
the promoters of disorders to be arrested and transport
ed to England for trial.

These resolutions of the Lords and Commons arrived
in America in May, 1769. The House of Burgesses of
Virginia was then in session, and Mr Jefferson, as we
have seen, was for the first time a member. These
menacing papers were principally directed against the
people of Massachusetts ; but the doctrines avowed in
them were too extraordinary to be overlooked in any
assembly which contained a Jefferson. They were no
sooner made known to the House, than he proposed the
adoption of counter resolutions, and warmly advocated
the propriety of making common cause with Massachu
setts, at every hazard. Counter resolutions and an ad
dress to the King were accordingly agreed to, with little

40 LIFE OF

opposition ; and the determination was then and there
formed, of considering the cause of any one colony as a
common one.

The seed of the American Union was here first sown.
By the resolutions which they passed, the Legislature
re-asserted the exclusive right of the colonies to tax
themselves in all cases whatsoever ; denounced the re
cent acts of Parliament, as flagrant violations of the
British Constitution ; and sternly remonstrated against
the assumed right to transport the freeborn citizens of
America to England, to be tried by their enemies. The
tone of these resolutions was so strong as to excite, for
the first time, the displeasure of the Governor, the
amiable Lord Bottetourt. The House had scarcely
adopted and ordered them to be entered upon their
journals, when they were summoned to his presence, to
receive the sentence of dissolution. 4 Mr Speaker, said
he, and gentlemen of the House of Representatives, I
have heard of your resolves, and augur ill of their ef
fects ; you have made it my duty to dissolve you, and
,you are accordingly dissolved.

: But the interference of the Executive had no effect
but to encourage the holy feeling it attempted to repress.
The next day, led on by Jefferson, Henry, and the
two Lees, the great body of the members retired to a
room, called the Apollo, in the Raleigh tavern, the prin
cipal hotel in Williamsburg. They there formed them
selves into a voluntary convention, drew up articles of
association against the use of any merchandise imported
from Great Britain, signed, and recommended them to
the people. They repaired to their several counties,
circulated the articles of the league among their con
stituents, and to the astonishment of all, so popular was
the measure that at the call of another Legislature they
were themselves re-elected without an exception.

The impetus thus given to the heroic example of Mas
sachusetts by a remote Province, carried it home to the

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 41

bosom of every colony. The non-importation agree
ment became general. All the luxuries, and many of
the comforts of life were sacrificed at once on the altar
of colonial liberty. Associations were formed at every
point, and a systematic war of interdiction and non-
consumption, was directed against British merchandise.
All ranks, all ages, and both sexes joined in nullifying
the unconstitutional tariff. The ladies established a
peculiar claim to pre-eminence on this occasion. They
relinquished, Avithout a struggle, all the elegancies, the
embellishments, and even the comforts to which they
had been accustomed, preferring for their attire, the
fabric of their own hands, to the most gorgeous habili
ments of tyranny. In Virginia, the anti-revenue move
ment was reduced to a system, and pursued with un
paralleled rigor. A. committee of vigilance was estab
lished in every county, whose duty it was to promote
subscriptions to the covenant, and to guard the execu
tion of the articles. The powers of these committees
being undefined, were almost unlimited. They exam
ined the books of the merchant, and pushed their in
quisitorial search into the sanctity of the fire-side, pun
ishing every breach by fine and public advertisement of
the offender, and rewarding every observance by an ap
propriate badge of merit. Such too, was the virtue of
popular opinion, that from their decision there was no
appeal. All who refused to subscribe the covenant of
self-disfranchisement, or proved unfaithful to its obliga
tions, underwent a species of social excommunication.
But the examples of delinquency were exceedingly rare
of apostacy rarer ; a few old tories only, of the most
intractable stamp were sent into gentlemanly exile be
yond the mountains.

The dissolution of the House of Burgesses was not
attended with any change in the popular representation ;
except in the very few instances of those who had with
held their assent from the patriotic proceedings. The

42 LIFE OF

next meeting of the Legislature of any permanent in
terest, which was not until the spring of 1773, saw Mr
Jefferson again at his post, intent upon the business of
substituting just principles of government for those which
prevailed.

A court of inquiry, held in Rhode-Island as far back
as 1762, in which was vested the extraordinary power to
transport persons to England, to be tried for offences
committed in America, was considered by him as de
manding attention, even after so long an interval of
silence. He was not in public life at the time this pro
ceeding was instituted, and consequently had not the
power to raise his voice against it ; but when an im
portant principle was violated, he deemed it never too
late to rally. Acquiescence in such an encroachment,
would give it the force of precedent, and precedent
would soon establish the right. An investigation and
protest, too, would rouse the apprehensions of the colo
nists, which had already relapsed into repose. This ap
peared to him a more desirable result, than the simple
assertion of right in that particular case. No unusual
excitement having occurred, during the protracted in
terval of legislative interruption, the people had fallen
into a state of insensibility : and yet, the same causes of
irritation existed, that had recently thrown them into
such ferment. The duty on tea, with a multitude of
co-existing-incumbrances, still pressed upon them ; and
the Declaratory Act of a right in the British Parliament
to bind them by their laws in all cases, was still sus
pended over them, hanging by the thread of ministerial
caprice. The lethargy of the public mind, under such
injustice, indicated to Mr Jefferson a fearful state of
things. It presented to his eye, a degree of moral
prostration, but one remove from that which constitutes
the proper element for despotism, and invites its visita
tions. It appeared to him indispensable that something
should be done to break the dead calm which rested

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 43

on the colonies, and to rouse the people to a sense of
their situation. Something, moreover, had been want
ing to produce concert of action, and a mutual un
derstanding among the colonies.

These objects could only be accomplished, he thought,
by the rapid dissemination of the earliest] intelligence
of events, with proper comments. This would keep
the excitement alive, and spread discontents, many of
which were local, from colony to colony. With a
view, therefore, to these important objects, and not
thinking the old and leading members had gained the
requisite point of forwardness, he proposed to a few
of the younger ones, a private meeting in the evening,
to consult on the state of things. On the evening
of the eleventh of March, 1773, we find this little band
of Virginia patriots, Jefferson, Henry, R. H. Lee, F. L.
Lee, and Dabney Carr, assembled in a private room of
the Raleigh tavern, to deliberate on the concerns of all
British America. This conclave, at the Raleigh tavern
in Williamsburg, had the merit of erecting the most
formidable engine of colonial resistance, that had been
devised the Committees of Correspondence between
the Legislatures of the different colonies : and the first
offspring of this measure was a movement of incon
ceivable consequence, not only to America, but to the
world the call of a General Congress of all the colo
nies.

This result was foreseen, it appears, by the meeting,
particularly by Mr Jefferson, who has left us an interest
ing reminiscence of their doings, avoiding as usual any
particular notice of his own agency.

We were all sensible that the most urgent of all
measures, was that of coming to an understanding with
all the other colonies, to consider the British claims as
a common cause to all, and to produce a unity of action ;
and for this purpose that a Committee of Correspond
ence, in each colony, would be the best instrument for

44 LIFE OF

inter-communication : and that their first measure would
probably be, to propose a meeting of Deputies from every
colony, at some central place, who should be charged
with the direction of the measures which should be taken
by all.

This presentiment of the call of a General Congress,
as the result of their meeting, must have made a power
ful impression upon the mind of Mr Jefferson ; for at
the age of seventy-three it was still fresh in his memory.
In a letter to a son of Dabney Carr, in 1816, he alludes
to it : I remember that Mr Carr and myself, returning
home together, and conversing on the subject, by the
way, concurred in the conclusion, that that measure
[Committees of Correspondence] must inevitably beget
the meeting of a Congress of Deputies from all the
colonies, for the purpose of uniting all in the same
principles and measures, for the maintenance of our
rights.

It being decided to recommend the appointment of
these committees, Mr Jefferson proceeded to draft reso
lutions to that effect, and improved the opportunity to
insert a special one, directing an inquiry into the judi
cial proceedings in Rhode-Island. The resolutions be
ing approved, it was decided to propose them to the
House of Burgesses, the next morning. His colleagues
in council, pressed Mr Jefferson to move them ; but I
urged, says he, that it should be done by Mr Carr, my
friend and brother-in-law, then a new member, to whom
I wished an opportunity should be given, of making
known to the House his great worth and talents. It
was accordingly agreed that Mr Carr should move them ;
after which, this coterie dissolved.

The resolutions were brought forward in the House
of Burgesses, the next morning, by young Mr Carr ;
who failed not to exhibit on the occasion, his great
worth and talents, in a speech which electrified the as
sembly. Mr Carr was a member from the county of

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 45

Louisa. He was hailed as a powerful acquisition to the
reform party. The members flocked around him, greeted
him with praises which spoke fervently in their coun
tenances, and congratulated themselves on the accession
of such a champion to their cause. But soon were
these proud anticipations blighted. Brief was the career
of the eloquent and lamented Carr. In two months
from the occasion which witnessed this, his first and
last triumph, he was no more.

Nearly half a century afterwards, Mr Jefferson reverts
to the transaction in a letter to a friend, with a fresh-
ness which shows a heart yet warm with the feeling it
excited.

I well remember the pleasure expressed in the coun
tenance and conversation of the members generally, on
this debut of Mr Carr, and the hopes they conceived,
as well from the talents as the patriotism it manifested.
But he died within two months after, and in hirn we lost
a powerful fellow laborer. His character was of a high
order. A spotless integrity, sound judgment, and fine
imagination, enriched by education and reading, quick
and clear in his conceptions, of correct and ready elo
cution, impressing every hearer with the sincerity of the
heart from which it flowed. His firmness was inflexible
in whatever he thought was right : but when no moral
principle stood in the way, never had man more of the
rnilk of human kindness, of indulgence, of softness, of
pleasantry in conversation and conduct. The number
of his friends, and the warmth of their affection, were
proofs of his worth, and of their estimate of it. To
give to those now living, an idea of the affliction pro
duced by his death, in the minds of all who knew him,
I liken it to that lately felt by themselves, on the death
of his eldest son, Peter Carr, so like him in all his en
dowments and moral qualities, and whose recollection
can never recur without a deep-drawn sigh from the
bosom of any one who knew him.

The resolutions were adopted the same day, March
12, 1773, without a dissenting voice. They had been
5

46 LIFE OP

drafted so dexterously, and in such guarded terms, as
not to awaken a suspicion against them in the old and
cautious members.

But the House of Burgesses had no sooner placed
them upon record, than they were dissolved, as usual,
by the Governor, then Lord Dunmore. For although
clothed in the most plausible and inoffensive language,
that watchful Executive had too much sagacity not to per
ceive, that they gave occasion for a more formidable re
sistance than had yet been apprehended.

But the sentence of dissolution had no effect but to
give a popular impulse to the proceedings that led to it ;
and to excite those who were designated in the resolu
tions for putting the machine into operation to greater
zeal and promptitude. The very next day, the Commit
tee of Correspondence assembled, organized themselves,
and proceeded to business. They adopted a circular
letter, prepared by Mr Jefferson, to the Speakers of the
other Colonies, enclosing to each a copy of the resolu
tions ; and left it in charge with their chairman, Peyton
Randolph, to transmit them by expresses. The chief mo
ver thus had the happiness to see his favorite measure in
course of execution.

Although the result of the Raleigh consultation had a
more decisive bearing upon the subsequent movements
of the country, than any recommendation that had pre
ceded it, we find no mention of the occurrence in any of
the numerous histories of our revolution. But the histo
ry of the American Revolution has not been written, so
said John Adams in 1815, in a letter to Mr Jefferson ;
the latter echoes the sentiment of his correspondent, and
declares it never can be written. * On the subject, says
he, of the history of the American Revolution, you ask,
who shall write it ? Who can write it ? And who will
ever be able to write it ? Nobody ; except merely its ex
ternal facts ; all its councils, designs, and discussions
were conducted in secret, and no traces of them were

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 47

preserved. These, which are the life and soul of histo
ry, must forever be unknown.

The recommendation of the Virginia Legislature was
answered with alacrity by the sister Colonies, and simi
lar Committees of Correspondence were appointed by
them all. By this means, a channel of direct communi
cation was established between the various provinces ;
which, by the interchange of opinions and alarms, main
tained a steady equalization of purpose and action
throughout the Colonies, and consolidated the phalanx
which breasted the power of Britain. The operations
of this great institution were incalculably beneficial to
the American cause. Its precise influence upon the
course and management of the Revolution has never
been critically ascertained. Its mighty cabinet has
never been broken open, yet it is supposed, that the
publication of its voluminous correspondence would ex
hibit some of the most interesting productions of Mr
Jefferson s pen, as he bore an active agency in its opera
tions ; and it is generally believed that the revelation of
its transactions and counsels, would develope to the
world the secret causes of many movements, the
knowledge of which would reflect accumulated glory on
the chiefs of that age.

As was predicted by Mr Jefferson and his confede
rates, the establishment of Corresponding Committees
resulted in the convocation of a general Congress ;
which event followed the ensuing year. The intermedi
ate steps to that result, require a summary notice, to
show the connection of the prophecy with its fulfilment.

The resistance to the revenue impositions had been
conducted with such inflexibility and general concert, as
to have checked the regular current of importation into
the Colonies, and occasioned a prodigious surcharge of
the dutied commodities in England. Immense quanti
ties of tea, in particular, had accumulated in the ware
houses of the East India Company a monopoly, which

48 LIFE OF

was much favored by the government, and had an ex
tensive influence over it. This company having obtain
ed permission to transport their tea, free of the usual
export duty, from Great Britain to America, on condi
tion that upon its introduction there, the duty of three
pence per pound should be paid, immediately dispatched
enormous shipments to Boston and other American
ports. On the arrival of the tea in Boston, the patri
ots were thrown into a frenzy of indignation and alarm.
They saw and felt that the crisis now approached which
was to decide the great question, whether they would
submit to taxation without representation, or brave the
consequences of some decisive movement, which might
be adequate to relieve them from the emergency. If
the tea was permitted to be landed, it would be sold,
the duties paid, and all they had gained be lost. They
resolved, therefore, that it should not be landed ; and
the resolution was no sooner formed, than executed, by
the destruction of the entire cargo.

The intelligence of this spirited stroke in vindication
of popular rights so exasperated the British ministry,
that they resorted to a measure which fixed the irrevoca
ble sentence of dismemberment upon the British empire.
This was the famous Boston Port Bill, by which the har
bor of that great city was closed against the importation
of any goods, wares or merchandise whatsoever, from
and afte-r the first day of June, 1774.

When the rumor of the impending calamity reach
ed Boston, a meeting of the inhabitants was called ;
the act was denounced as cruel and flagitious ; they
made their appeal to God and the world. Numerous
copies of the act were printed and dispersed over the
colonies ; and to make a deeper impression on the mul
titude, the copies were printed on mourning paper, bor
dered with black lines ; and they were cried through the
country as the barbarous, cruel, sanguinary and inhuman
murder. , *

* Botta, vol. I, p. 120.

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 49

The Legislature of Virginia was in session when the
news of this interdict was received, to wit, in May, 1774.
Mr Jefferson was still a member, and his sympathies for
the north, rose to a point before unequalled. Perceiving
the advantages to be derived from the popular excitement,
which he foresaw would be created, he as quickly de
vised the means for using it with effect for the benefit
of the common cause. Fearful to trust the cause, at this
propitious moment, to the tardy pace of the old mem
bers, he again rallied the little council of chiefs with
whom he had confederated on the former occasion, and
concerted a private meeting, the same evening, at the
council chamber of the library, to consult on the
proper measures to be taken. Punctual at the hour,
they met ; and mutually ripe in sentiment, unanimously
agreed that they must boldly take an unequivocal stand
in the line with Massachusetts. They were also im
pressed with the necessity of arousing the people from
the apathy into which they had fallen, as to passing
events ; and for this purpose, Mr Jefferson proposed
the appointment of a day of general fasting and prayer
throughout the colony, as most likely to call up and
alarm their attention. The proposition met enthusiastic
acceptance with his colleagues ; and he was requested
to prepare the necessary instrument, to be presented to
the House.

* No example, says Mr Jefferson, of such a solem
nity had existed since the days of our distress in the
war of 55, since which a new generation had grown
up. With the help, therefore, of Rushworth, whom we
rummaged over for the revolutionary precedents and
forms of the Puritans of that day, preserved by him,
we cooked up a resolution, somewhat modernizing their
phrases, for appointing the Jirst day of June, on which
the Port Bill was to commence, for a day of fasting,
humiliation and prayer, to implore Heaven to avert
from us the evils of civil war, to inspire us with firmness
5*

50 LIFE OF

in support of our rights, and to turn the hearts of the
King and Parliament to moderation and justice. The
draft was approved by the consulting members ; but be
fore they separated, another important figure was ne
cessary to be arranged ; and the manner in which it
was done showed the wisdom and sagacity of the con
clave. * To give greater emphasis to our proposition,
continues Mr Jefferson, we agreed to wait, the next
morning, on Mr JVieholas, whose grave and religious
character was more in unison with the tone of our reso
lution, and to solicit him to move it.* They accordingly
went to Mr Nicholas the next morning. He moved it
the same day, May 24th ; and it passed without oppo
sition.

The instrument was drawn up much like the New
England proclamations of the present day, with great
solemnity of phraseology, directing the members, pre
ceded by the Speaker and mace, to assemble on the ap
pointed day, devoutly to implore the Divine interposi
tion for averting the heavy calamity which threatens
destruction to our civil rights, and the evils of civil war ;
to give us one heart and one mind, firmly to oppose, by
all just and proper means, every injury to American
rights ; and that the minds of His Majesty and parlia
ment may be inspired from above with wisdom, modera
tion, and justice, to remove from the loyal people of
America, all cause of alarm from a continued pursuit
of measures pregnant with their ruin.

The solemn example of Virginia was the signal for a
general movement among the colonies. The same reli
gious observance was ordered to be kept on the same
day, in all the principal towns ; and the first day of
June was a day of mourning throughout the continent.
Business was suspended ; the bells sounded a funeral
knell ; the pulpits reverberated with inflammatory dis
courses ; and every engine of popular terror was put in
use. In Virginia, the heavens were shrouded with

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 51

gloom ; the ministers of religion, arrayed in their long
black robes, headed processions of the people, and
alarmed them from the pulpit with terrific appeals to
their passions ; popular orators pronounced their in
flammatory harangues ; the committees of vigilance cir
culated the infection through every village ; and all co
operated with prodigious effect in promoting the general
conflagration. The people, says Mr Jefferson, met
generally, with anxiety and alarm in their countenances,
and the effect of the day, through the whole colony, was
like a shock of electricity, arousing every man, and
placing him erect and solidly on his centre.

The most important transaction of this eventful ses
sion remains to be considered. The chain of causes
were now bringing about the grand result, so confi
dently predicted by Mr Jefferson. It would hardly seem
credible at the present day, that a resolution for the
appointment of a religious ceremony, conceived in such
terms of mingled devotion and loyalty as was that of
the House of Burgesses, should have provoked the hos
tile interposition of the Executive power : but so it was.
The order of the House for a general fast had no sooner
fallen under the eye of Lord Dunmore, than he made
his appearance before them with the following speech :
4 Mr Speaker and gentlemen of the House of Burgesses :
I have in my hand a paper published by order of your
House, conceived in such terms as reflect highly upon
His Majesty and the parliament of Great Britain, which
makes it necessary to dissolve you, and you are dissol
ved accordingly.

But the powers of the government had become com
pletely paralyzed in that contumacious colony ; and its
Executive decrees were regarded as idle ceremonies.
The whole body of the members repaired in a mass to
the Apollo. They immediately organized themselves
into an independent Convention, agreed to an associa
tion more solemnly than ever against the calamitous

52 LIFE OF

revenue system ; declared that an attack on any one
colony to compel submission to arbitrary taxes, should
be considered as an attack on all British America ; and
instructed their committee of correspondence to propose
to the corresponding committees of the other colonies,
the expediency of appointing Deputies to meet in Congress
annually, at such place as should be convenient, to di
rect from time to time the measures required by the
general interest.

That no time might be lost in carrying their recom
mendation of a Congress into effect, they did not leave
their seats without first having arranged the preliminary
meeting for the choice of their own deputies. They
passed a resolution soliciting the people of the several
counties to elect representatives to meet at Williams-
burg, the 1st of August ensuing, to take into further con
sideration the state of the colony ; and particularly to
appoint delegates to the General Congress, should that
measure be acceded to by the corresponding committees
of the other colonies. The meeting then dissolved ;
and the members were universally greeted with the ap
plause of their countrymen.

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 53

CHAPTER III.

FROM this period, 1774, the royal government might
be considered at an end in Virginia. The self-constitu
ted convention, which was erected upon the ruins of
the regal Legislature, immediately succeeded by a bold
usurpation to all its functions, and took the reins of the
government into their own hands. .

Agreeably to their instructions, the committee of cor
respondence lost no time in proposing to the commit
tees of the other provinces, the expediency of uniting
in the plan of a general congress. They met the day
after the adjournment of the convention, Mr Jefferson
in the chair ; prepared letters according to their in
structions ; and dispatched them by messengers express
to their several destinations. The proposition was
unanimously embraced ; by Massachusetts first, whose
Legislature was in session when it was received ; and
by all the other provinces, in quick succession, as their
respective Legislatures or conventions assembled. Dele
gates were universally chosen no province sending less
than two nor more than seven. Philadelphia was de
signated as the place, and the 5th of September ensuing,
as the time of meeting.

Agreeably to the further recommendation of the meet
ing at the Apollo, the people of the several counties of
Virginia elected delegates to the preliminary conven
tion at Williamsburg. Mr Jefferson was chosen to
represent the county in which he resided. On the first
of August, 74, this formidable body, being the first de-

54 LIFE OP

mocratic convention of Virginia, assembled at Williams-
burg, and was organized for business.

Mr Jefferson, before leaving home, bad prepared a
code of instructions to the delegates who should be
chosen to Congress, which he meant to propose for the
adoption of the meeting. Speaking of these instruc
tions, the author says, * they were drawn in haste, with
a number of blanks, with some uncertainties, and inac
curacies of historical facts, which I neglected at the
moment, knowing they could be readily corrected at the
meeting.

It is generally admitted that this production ranks
second only to the Declaration of Independence, of
which it was indeed the genuine precursor, for boldness
and originality of sentiment, and felicity of composition.
He set out for Williamsburg, some days before that ap
pointed for the meeting of the Convention, but was ar
rested on his journey by sickness, which prevented his
attendance in person. His spirit, however, was there ;
and so anxious was he to discharge, in some way, the
duties of his appointment, that he forwarded by express
duplicate copies of his draught; one under cover to Pat
rick Henry, the other to Peyton Randolph. His own
account of the reception of his draught is too interesting
to be omitted.

Whether Mr Henry disapproved the ground taken, or
was too lazy to read it, for he was the laziest man in
reading I ever knew, I never learned : but he commu
nicated it to nobody. He probably thought it too bold,
as a first measure, as the majority of the members did.
On the other copy being laid upon the table of the Con
vention, by Peyton Randolph, as the proposition of a
member who was prevented from attendance, by sickness
on the road, tamer sentiments were preferred, and, I be
lieve, wisely preferred ; the leap I proposed being too
long, as yet, for the mass of our citizens. The distance
between these, and the instructions actually adopted, is
of some curiosity, however, as it shows the inequality of

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 55

pace with which we moved, and the prudence required
to keep front and rear together.

The paper was read, nevertheless, with great avidity
by the members ; and although they considered it < a leap
too long for the existing state of things, they were so
impressed with its expositions of the rights and v/rongs
of the Colonies, that they caused it to be published in a
pamphlet form, under the title of A Summary View of
the Rights of British America. A copy of the work
having found its way to England, was taken up by the
whigs in Parliament, interpolated in some places by the
celebrated Burke, to adapt it to opposition purposes there,
and in that form ran rapidly through several editions.
Such doctrines as were advanced in this pamphlet, had
never before been heard in England, nor even ventured
in America ; and they drew upon the author the hottest
vials of ministerial wrath. The name of Jefferson was
forthwith enrolled in a Bill of Attainder for treason, in
company with those of about twenty other American cit
izens, who were considered the principal agitators in
the Colonies. The Attainder however although actually
commenced in Parliament, never came to maturity, but
was suppressed in embryo by the hasty step of events,
which warned them to be a little cautious.

This ancient paper is highly valuable as containing
the first disclosure, in a clear and authentic form, of the
state of Mr Jefferson s mind on the subject of those great
questions which were the bases of the American Revolu
tion ; and as exhibiting in the discussions which it gave
rise to, and in the circumstances attending its rejection
by the Convention, the inequality of pace with which
the leaders in the American councils travelled onward to
the same result. It will not be thought invidious at the
present day, to compare the birth and trace the relative
progress of their opinions on those truths the practical
application of which, in a rational and peaceable way,

56 LIFE OF

has already regenerated the political condition of half
the world.

It appears that in the most essential principles involved
in the emancipation of the American Colonies from Great
Britain those principles which settled the question
upon its right basis and determined the final issue Mr
Jefferson was for a long time ahead of his cotemporaries.
The great point at which the other leaders of that hazar
dous enterprize, with a single exception,* halted, as the
utmost extremity of colonial right, he only called the
* half way house. A brief memorandum which he him
self has left of that period, explains the ground which he
occupied, and the precise distance between him and his
compatriots. Speaking of his draft of instructions, he
says

In this I took the ground that, from the beginning, I
had thought the only one orthodox or tenable, which was,
that the relation between Great Britain and these Colo
nies, was exactly the same, as that of England and Scot
land, after the accession of James and until the union;
and the same as her present relations with Hanover, hav
ing the same executive chief, but no other necessary po
litical connection ; arid that our emigration from England
to this country, gave her no more rights over us, than
the emigrations of the Danes and Saxons gave to the
present authorities of the mother country, over England.
In this doctrine, however, I had never been able to get
any one to agree with me but Mr Wythe. He concurred
in it from the first dawn of the question What was the
political relation between us and England 1 Our other
patriots, Randolph, the Lees, Nicholas, Pendleton, stop
ped at the half-way house of John Dickinson, who ad
mitted that England had a right to regulate our com
merce, and to lay duties on it for the purposes of regula
tion, but not of raising revenue. But for this ground
there was no foundation in compact, in any acknowledged
principles of colonization, nor in reason expatriation

* Mr Wythe.

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 57

being a natural right, and acted on as such, by all nations,
in all ages.

Again, in a letter to John Saunderson, in 1820, he
says :

* On the first dawn of the Revolution, instead of hig
gling on half-way principles, as others did, who feared to
follow their reason, he [Wythe] took his stand on the
solid ground, that the only link of political union between
us and Great Britain, was the identity of our executive ;
that that nation, and its Parliament, had no more author
ity over us, than we had over them ; and that we were
co-ordinate nations with Great Britain and Hanover.

This point is farther illustrated in the Bill of Attainder,
before mentioned. After reciting a list of proscriptions,
among which were Hancock and the Adamses, as noto
rious leaders of the opposition in Massachusetts, Patrick
Henry, as the same in Virginia, Peyton Randolph, as Pre
sident of the General Congress in Philadelphia, the Bill
adds, and Thomas Jefferson, as author of a proposition
to the Convention of Virginia, for an address to the King,
in which was maintained, that there was in right, no link
of union between England and the Colonies, but that of the
same King ; and that neither the Parliament, nor any other
functionary of that government, had any more right to ex
ercise authority over the Colonies, than over the electorate
of Hanover ; yet expressing, in conclusion, an acquiescence
in reasonable restrictions of commerce for the benefit of
Great Britain, a conviction of the mutual advantages of
union, and a disavowal of the wish for separation. *

It appears, therefore, that the final and only tenable
ground of answer to the great question which formed the
hinge of the American Revolution, the right of taxation
without representation, originated with Mr Jefferson.
Following out the right of expatriation into all its con
sequences, he advanced at once to the necessary con-

* Girardin s History of Virginia, Appendix, No. 12, note.
6

58 LIFE OF

elusion, that there was no political connection what
ever between the Parliament of Great Britain and the
Colonies ; and consequently, that it had no right to tax
them in any case not even for the regulation of com
merce. The other patriots, either not admitting the right
of expatriation, or what is most likely, not having pursued
it to its legitimate results, conceded the authority of
Parliament over the Colonies for the purposes of com
mercial regulation, though not of raising revenue. But
this was going no farther than did Burke, Chatham,
Wilkes, Fox, and the opposition members generally of
the House of Commons ; and it is not improbable that,
had the question been restrained to that issue, it would
have terminated in mutual reconciliation upon that basis.
But happily it was not so restrained, and quite a different
conclusion was the result. It is no small evidence of
originality, that one of the youngest of the American
counsellors, and a youth compared to most of them, should
have been the first to plant himself upon the farthest
verge of colonial right, short of absolute independence.

Upon a critical examination of this paper, which is in
serted at length in the first volume of Jefferson s Works,
it will appear that the author s mind had already attain
ed those fundamental discoveries in Political Science,
which have since received such an astonishing exempli
fication before the world. It is a more learned and
elaborate production than the Declaration of Independ
ence, to which it is inferior as a literary performance ;
but in power and sublimity of conception, scarcely
exceeded by the * Declaratory Charter of our rights
and of the rights of man.

The author begins with the vindication of the first
principle of all political truth, the sovereignty of the peo-
ple, as a right which they derive frdnr-rod, and not from
His Majesty ; who, he affirms, 4 is no more than the
chief officer of the people, appointed by the laws, and
invested with definite powers, to assist in working the

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 59

great machine of government, erected for their use, and
consequently subject to their superintendence. He next
proceeds to vindicate the right of expatriation, showing
that the barbarian nations in the North of Europe, from
whom the inhabitants of Great Britain descended, would
have as good right to usurp jurisdiction over them, as
they over us ; and from this right, the basis of every oth
er, he deduces the broad principle, that the American
States were co-ordinate nations with Great Britain her
self, having a common executive head, but no other link
of political union. The doctors of nullification would
here find a triumphant justification of their theory,
should it be made to appear, that the States possess the
same relation to the federal, that they then did to the
mother government ! He refutes, with becoming satire,
the fictitious principle of the common law, that all lands
belong mediately or immediately to the Crown, and says,
it is high time to declare, that His Majesty has no right
to grant lands of himself. Finally, he recommends His
Majesty to open his breast to liberal and expanded
thought, adding that the great principles of right and
wrong are legible to every reader, and that the whole
art of government consists in the art of being honest. 1

In conformity to this ground, the word States is for
the first time substituted for that of Colonies. This
will not be thought a small circumstance when it is
known, that in the debates upon the Declaration of In
dependence even, the term States was made a topic of
repeated cavil, and in several instances expunged. The
Convention at Williamsburg were not prepared to sanction
the principles contained in these instructions. Tamer
sentiments were substituted; the congressional delegates*

* The Delegates to the first Congress, on the part of Virginia,
were Peyton Randolph, Richard H. Lee, George Washington, Pat
rick Henry, Richard Bland, Benjamin Harrison, and Edmund Pen-
dleton.

60 LIFE OF

were appointed, to the number of seven ; and resolutions
were adopted, in which they pledged themselves to make
common cause with the people of Boston, in every ex
tremity. They broke off all commercial connection with
the mother country, until the grievances of which they
complained, should be redressed ; and empowered their
chairman, Peyton Randolph, or in case of his death,
Robert C. Nicholas, on any future occasion that might
in his opinion require it, to convene the several delegates
of the colony, at such time and place as he might judge
proper. This last resolve was more important than all
the others, as it showed their determination to keep the
government in their own hands, to the exclusion of the
parent authorities, and was a virtual assumption of inde
pendence in Virginia.

The General Congress assembled at Carpenter s Hall,
in Philadelphia, September 5th, 74 ; and organized for
business, by choosing Peyton Randolph of Virginia,
President, and Charles Thompson of Pennsylvania, Se
cretary. Delegates attended from every province, ex
cept Georgia, and were in number fifty-five. They ter
minated their first session on the 26th of October, to
meet again at the same place on the 10th of May ensu
ing, at which time Mr Jefferson became a Deputy elect.

On the 20th of March, 1775, the popular Convention
of Virginia assembled the second time, upon invitation of
the Chairman, to deliberate further on the state of pub
lic affairs, and the measures it demanded. To a politi
cal union with Great Britain, upon the broad basis of
reason and right, he was not averse ; nay, he most anx
iously and fervently desired it, to avoid the horrors and
desolations which the other alternative presented. But,
by the God that made me,"* said he a short time afterwards,
* / will cease to exist, before, I yield to a connection on such
terms as the British Parliament propose. The distance
between the terms upon which he would consent to a
union, and the terms which Great Britain had demand-

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 61

ed, was too great for any reasonable hope of accommo
dation. The only grounds upon which he would submit
to a compromise were, freedom from all jurisdiction of
the British Parliament, and the exclusive regulation, by
the colonies, of their own internal affairs, freedom
from all restraints upon navigation with respect to other
nations, freedom from all necessary accountability to
the common law, and, in a word, freedom from all
the laws, institutions and customs of the mother country,
until they should have been specifically adopted as our
laws, institutions and customs, by the positive or implied
assent of the people.

But would Great Britain consent to an abandonment
of all her pretensions, and accept the proffered condi
tions ? The idea was preposterous. So far from it, there
was little probability she would yield to the far more
gracious proposals of Congress. Mr Jefferson saw with
prophetic certainty the inevitable result ; and he yearn
ed to have the same clear, strong, yet terrible perspec
tive burst upon the tardy vision of his countrymen. He
had long anticipated the awful crisis, to which the cur
rent of events was fast tending ; and we have now arriv
ed to the epoch, when his mind was made up to meet
that crisis, with all the firmness which its nature de
manded. My creed, says he, had been formed on un
sheathing the sword at Lexington. This event, it will be
recollected, occurred the ensuing month of April.

The Convention proceeded to business. They adopt
ed a resolution expressive of their unqualified approba
tion of the measures of Congress ; declaring that they
considered * this whole continent as under the highest ob
ligations to that respectable body, for the wisdom of their
counsels, and their unremitted endeavors to maintain
and preserve inviolate, the just rights and liberties of his
Majesty s dutiful and loyal subjects in America. They
next resolved, that the warmest thanks of the convention
and of all the inhabitants of this colony, were due, and
6*

O LIFE OF

that this just tribute of applause be presented to the wor
thy delegates deputed by a former convention to repre
sent this colony in general congress, for their cheerful
undertaking and faithful discharge of the very important
trust reposed in them.

It would be doing injustice to Mr Jefferson, to suppose
the above resolutions came from him. Not that he dis
approved them ; on the contrary, he regarded their
adoption as an act of justice as well as gratitude.
But they probably proceeded from that side of the
House, which now, as heretofore, was content to follow;
and whose sentiments, being more in unison with the in
structions given to their own deputies, were likewise
more conformable to the attitude assumed by Congress.
For, be it understood, there was a strong inequality of
sentiment in this, as in all former meetings ; nor was it
long in displaying itself. Soon there arose a leader from
the other side of the House, who responded in a note of
thunder to the preceding resolutions, as follows :

4 Resolved, that this colony be immediately put into a

state of defence, and that be a committee to

prepare a plan for embodying, arming, and disciplining,
such a number of men, as may be sufficient for that
purpose.

The effect of this proposition was like a bolt from hea
ven upon the members of the Convention. A deep and
painful sensation betrayed itself portending a desperate
resistance to the measure. Long and vehement was the
contest that succeeded. The resolution was opposed by
all the aged, including some of the warmest patriots of
the Convention ; Pendleton, Harrison, Bland, Nicholas,
and even the sanguine and republican Wythe. Alluding
to these gentlemen and their backwardness upon this oc
casion, Mr Jefferson writes to a friend, in 1815 :

These were honest and able men, who had begun the
opposition on the same grounds, but with a moderation
more adapted to their age and experience. Subsequent

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 63

events favored the bolder spirits of Henry, the Lees,
Pages, Mason, &c, with whom I went in all points.
Sensible, however, of the importance of unanimity among
our constituents, although we often wished to have gone
on faster, we slackened our pace, that our less ardent
colleagues might keep up with us ; and they, on their
part, differing nothing from us in principle, quickened
their gait somewhat beyond that, which their prudence
might, of itself, have advised, and thus consolidated the
phalanx, which breasted the power of Britain. By this
harmony of the bold with the cautious, we advanced,
with our constituents, in undivided mass, and with fewer
examples of separation, than perhaps existed in any other
part of the union.

These gentlemen were all characters of weight in the
Colony ; insomuch that in all proceedings of a popular
bearing it was essential to conciliate them. Their oppo
sition therefore, at this stage of their progress, was a
source of real anguish to the more ardent chiefs of the
reform party. Their repugnance to the military propo
sition was as unfeigned, as firm. They had never dream
ed of carrying their resistance into more serious forms
than those of petition, remonstrance and passive non-
intercourse. With expectations yet warm and unclouded,
of a final reconciliation with the parent government, they
shrunk with horror, from any attitude which might en
danger that, result. Most of them were zealous Church
men, ardently attached to the established religion of
Great Britain, and dreaded a disruption from her, on that
account, as from the anchor of their salvation. They
directed the whole weight of their influence, and exerted
all the powers of their eloquence to defeat the measure ;
but their resistance was overborne by the impetuosity of
that torrent which poured from the lips of the more reso
lute champions of freedom.

The resolution was moved by Mr Henry, and support
ed by him, by Mr Jefferson, and the whole of that host
which had achieved so much in council. They put

64 LIFE OF

their united resources into action ; and bore off the palm
against the wisdom and pertinacity of the opposing corps.
The proposition was carried, and no sooner was the vote
declared than the opposing members, one and all, went
over to the majority, and lent their names to supply the
blank in the resolution. They quickened their gait
somewhat beyond that which their prudence had of itself
advised, and advanced boldly to a line with their col
leagues. Mr Jefferson was appointed on the committee
to prepare the plan called for by the resolution. The
committee met immediately ; and reported to the same
Convention a plan for embodying, arming and disciplin
ing the militia, which was likewise adopted.

This was a revolutionary movement. In addition to
the local advantages which it secured, it operated as a
direct appeal to the sister Colonies, and to Congress.
But it was even more important as recognizing a funda
mental principle. In the preamble to the resolution,
which bears the broad stamp of Mr Jefferson s senti
ments, it is declared that a well-regulated militia, com
posed of gentlemen and yeomen, is the natural strength
and only security of a free government ; and that a
standing army of mercenary soldiers is subversive of the
quiet, dangerous to the liberties, and burthensome to the
properties of the people.

Having disposed of this subject, and transacted some
other business of minor importance, the Convention pro
ceeded to the election of Deputies to the ensuing Con
gress. They re-appointed the same persons ; and fore
seeing the probability that Peyton Randolph would be
called off to attend a meeting of the House of Burgesses,
they made choice of Mr Jefferson to supply the vacancy.
Lastly, having provided for a re-election of delegates to
the next Convention, they adjourned.

We have now reached the precise date, May 1775, at
which Mr Jefferson announced that creed which he
dictated to Congress, one year after, and they so un-

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 65

dauntedly promulgated to the world. The God who
gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time, was first ;
the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them,*
was last. The * hand of force had been upraised ; the
sword had been drawn at Lexington, and blood had been
spilt. From that moment all hope, not to say desire, of
a peaceable accommodation, was extinguished.

The following letter, written at this time, exhibits the
state of his own, and of the public mind, on the intelli
gence of the first hostilities. It is the earliest of his
published correspondence, and was addressed to his
college friend, William Small.

May 7, 1775.

4 Dear Sir, Within this week we have received the
unhappy news of an action of considerable magnitude,
between the King s troops and our brethren of Boston,
in which, it is said, five hundred of the former, with the
Earl of Percy are slain. That such an action has oc
curred is undoubted, though, perhaps, the circumstances
may not have reached us with truth. This accident has
cut off our last hope of reconciliation, and a frenzy of
revenge seems to have seized all ranks of people. It is
a lamentable circumstance, that the only mediatory
power, acknowledged by both parties, instead of leading
to a reconciliation his divided people, should pursue the
incendiary purpose of still blowing up the flames, as we
find him constantly doing, in every speech and public
declaration. This may, perhaps, be intended to intimi
date into acquiescence, but the effect has been most un
fortunately otherwise. A little knowledge of human
nature, and attention to its ordinary workings, might
have foreseen that the spirits of the people here were in
a state, in which they were more likely to be provoked,
than frightened, by haughty deportment. And to fill up
the measure of irritation, a proscription of individuals
has been substituted in the room of just trial. Can it
be believed, that a grateful people will suffer those to be
consigned to execution, whose sole crime has been the
developing and asserting their rights ? Had the Parlia
ment possessed the power of reflection, they would have

66 LIFE OF

avoided a measure as impotent as it was inflammatory.
When I saw Lord Chatham s bill, I entertained high
hope that a reconciliation could have been brought
about. The difference between his terms, and those
offered by our Congress, might have been accommo
dated, if entered on, by both parties, with a disposition
to accommodate. But the dignity of Parliament, it
seems, can brook no opposition to its power. Strange,
that a set of men, who have made sale of their virtue to
the minister, should yet talk of retaining dignity ! But
I am getting into politics, though I sat down only to ask
your acceptance of the wine, and express my constant
wishes for your happiness.

According to expectation, the General Assembly of
Virginia was summoned by Governor Dunmore, to meet
on the 1st day of June, 75 ; and Peyton Randolph was
obliged to leave the chair of congress, to attend as
speaker to that assembly. Thus was created the antici
pated vacancy in the congressional delegation, which
Mr Jefferson had been elected to fill. But he did not
take his seat in that memorable body until some weeks
after. A more imperious duty required his attention at
home, just at that moment.

Lord Dunmore had paraded the Legislature before
him, declaring that His Majesty, in the plenitude of his
royal condescension, had extended the olive branch to
his discontented subjects in America, and opened the
door of reconciliation upon such terms as demanded
their grateful consideration and prompt acceptance.
The olive branch proved to be the famous Conciliatory
Proposition of Lord North, than which, a more insidi
ous overture, or a more awkward attempt at diplomacy
never disgraced the annals of ministerial intrigue. He
immediately laid his budget before the Legislature.
Happily Mr Jefferson was a member ; and he was en
treated to delay his departure for Congress, until this
exciting subject should be disposed of. The speaker,
Randolph, knowing that the same proposition had been

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 67

addressed to the governors of all the colonies, and anx
ious that the answer of the Virginia Assembly should
harmonize with the sentiments and wishes of the body
he had recently left, persuaded Mr Jefferson to remain
at his post. He feared, says the latter, that Mr
Nicholas, whose mind was not yet up to the mark of the
times, would undertake the answer, and therefore press
ed me to prepare it.

The import of this celebrated proposition was, that
should any colony propose to contribute its proportion
towards providing for the common defence, such pro
portion to be disposable by Parliament, and to defray the
amount of its own civil list, such colony, the proposal
being approved by the parent government, should be ex
empted from all parliamentary taxes, except those for
the regulation of commerce ; the net proceeds of which
should be passed to its separate credit. It was perceived
at once, that an official proposition from the British
court, so specious in its terms, and at the same time so
mischievous in its designs, required a fundamental evis
ceration and reply. A committee of twelve therefore of
the strongest members, was raised, to devise the appro
priate treatment ; and to Mr Jefferson, who was one of
the committee, was assigned with one accord the exclu
sive preparation of the instrument. The admirable ad
dress with which he baffled the diplomacy of the British
minister, and the designs of his vaunted Proposition,
has been the theme of the historian and the statesman,
from that day to the present. The original draught was
so strong that even the committee were in doubt ; and
although they consented to report it, they attacked it
with severity in the House. But with the aid of
Randolph, says Mr Jefferson, I carried it through ;
with long and doubtful scruples from Mr Nicholas and
James Mercer, and a dash of cold water on it here and
there, enfeebling it somewhat, but finally with unanimi
ty, or a vote approaching it.

68 LIFE OF

In this paper the author did not scruple to intimate to
the minister, that his proposition was perfectly under
stood on this side of the water. That its real object was
to produce a division among the Colonies, some of
which, it was supposed, would accept it and forsake the
rest ; or in failure of that, to afford a pretext to the peo
ple of England for justifying the Government in the
adoption of the most coercive measures. He declared
moreover that having examined it in the most favorable
point of view, he was still compelled with pain and dis
appointment to conclude, that it only changed the form
of oppression, without lightening its burden ; and that
therefore it must be met by a firm and unqualified rejec
tion. He said that the proposal then made to them, in
volved the interests of all the Colonies, and should have
been addressed to them in their collective capacity.
They were represented in a general Congress composed
of Deputies from all the States, whose union, he trusted,
had been so strongly cemented that no partial applica
tion could produce the slightest departure from the com
mon cause. They considered themselves as bound in
honor, as well as interest, to share one general fate with
their sister colonies : and should hold themselves as base
deserters of the Union to which they had acceded, were
they to agree to any measure of a separate accommo
dation. This celebrated paper concludes with a reli
gious ejaculation ; the want of which in some of the
documents drawn by Mr Jefferson, has afforded a theme
of unjust animadversion upon his views of the Divine
superintendence.

These, my Lord, are our sentiments, on this impor
tant subject, which we offer only as an individual part of
the whole empire. Final determination we leave to the
General Congress, now sitting, before whom we shall
lay the papers your lordship has communicated to us.
For ourselves, we have exhausted every mode of appli
cation which our invention could suggest, as proper and
promising. We have decently remonstrated with par-

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 69

liament they have added new injuries to the old ; we
have wearied our King * with supplications he has not
deigned to answer us ; we have appealed to the native
honor and justice of the British nation their efforts in
our favor have hitherto been ineffectual. What then re
mains to be done 1 That we commit our injuries to the
even-handed justice of that Being, who doeth no wrong,
earnestly beseeching Him to illuminate the councils, and
prosper the endeavors of those to whom America hath
confided her hopes ; that through their wise directions,
we may again. see re-united the blessings of liberty, pros
perity and harmony with Great Britain.

It may be considered fortunate that Virginia took the
precedence of the other Colonies, perhaps even of Con
gress, in replying to this deceptive overture ; and no less
fortunate that the business of preparing the answer de
volved on Mr Jefferson. A less decisive and unequivo
cal stand at the outset, would have admitted the entering
wedge, and perhaps ended in utter disorganization. It
is not among the least of the merits of this performance,
that the Union is kept uppermost throughout, and the
word Congress sounded in the ears of his lordship at
every step, sternly intimating that that is the door at
which he must knock with all his messages of negocia-
tion. Better evidence, however, of the high character
of this production could not be given, than the fact that,
on Mr Jefferson s repairing to Philadelphia and convey
ing the first notice of it to Congress, that enlightened
body were so impressed with the ground taken, that
they very soon adopted it, after a slight revision by the
author, as the concurrent voice of the nation. This cir
cumstance accounts for the similarity of feature in the
two instruments. Viewed in a political light the present
essay, like his Rights of British America, proves the
author s mind to have been indoctrinated in the great
principles of the Revolution, long before he wrote the
Declaration of Independence. Its effect upon Lord
Dunmore may be inferred from his answer, a few days
after its presentation to his Excellency. It was suffi-

70 LIFE OF

ciently laconic. Gentlemen of the House of Burgesses
It is with real concern I can discover nothing in your
address, that I think manifests the smallest inclination
to, or will be productive of, a reconciliation with the
mother country.

This was the last regal Assembly that ever met in
Virginia. They adjourned on the 24th of June, 75, and
the Governor could never afterwards collect a quorum.
In a paroxysm of terror he had some days before aban
doned the palace, and fled for refuge on board one of the
British ships of war, declaring he would never return,
unless they accepted the conciliatory proposition of the
Prime Minister. Although his Excellency returned, the
people would never afterwards receive him or rever
ence his authority.

As this was the last, so was it the most important As
sembly that was held under the royal government. By
its decisions, a long stride was taken in the advancement
of the general cause. The example was electric upon
the other provinces, and was felt with awe in the great
American Council. The constant gratitude, says Girar-
din, of the American people, will, through every succeed
ing generation, be due to this assembly of enlightened
patriots. Had they, upon this occasion, have accepted
of any partial terms of accommodation, favorable to them
selves alone, and in exclusion of the rights of the other
colonies, or had they been less firm in repelling the ag
gressions of the Governor, or less able in defending their
own liberties, the cause of American Independence might
probably have terminated very differently from what it
actually did.

The fall of the regal power in Virginia commenced
the literal verification of that blasting prophecy of Wilkes
in the House of Commons, the February before. But the
4 loss of the first province of the empire was not follow
ed, as he hoped, with the loss of the heads of the Min
isters. In the course of one of the most vehement and

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 71

overwhelming onsets against the administration, and one
of the most ardent and powerful discourses upon human
liberty, every tittle of which was a prophecy, that intre
pid defender of the rights of man uttered the following
sentences. In the great scale of empire, you will de
cline, I fear from the decision of this day ; and the Amer
icans will rise to independence, to power, to all the
greatness of the most renowned States ; for they build
on the solid basis of general public liberty. If you
persist in your resolution, all hope of reconciliation is
extinct. The Americans will triumph the whole con
tinent of North America will be dismembered from
Great Britain, and the w r ide arch of the raised empire
fall. But I hope the just vengeance of the people will
overtake the authors of these pernicious counsels, and
the loss of the first province of the empire, be speedily
followed by the loss of the heads of those Ministers who
first invented them.

72

LIFE OF

CHAPTER IV.

%

ON the 21st of June, 1775, Mr Jefferson took his seat
in the grand council of arbiters, to whom America had
committed the direction of her destinies. In the origi
nation of this Council, he had exercised a leading agen
cy ; and through the whole process of its establishment,
had persevered with ardor.

He was now ushered upon a theatre, broad enough
to meet his own standard of thought and desire of ac
tion. His patriotism had comprehended the whole ter
ritory of British America, and would stop at nothing
short. The Union had had its birth place in his mind.
It had been first breathed from his lips. He had pointed
to it in all his propositions ; and hurled it in defiance
at the British Premier The consolidation of the moral
and physical energies of the continent, was the first ob
ject of his ambition ; and that object was now in a fair
course of accomplishment.

Congress had been in session about six weeks when
Mr Jefferson arrived ; yet an opportunity had been re
served, in anticipation, for impressing the tone of his
sentiments upon the most important state-paper that had
yet been meditated.

On the 24th of June, the committee which had been
appointed to prepare a Declaration of the causes of taking
up arms, brought in their report. The report, being dis
approved by the majority, was recommitted, and Mr
Jefferson and Mr Dickinson were added to the com
mittee. This document was designed as a manifesto to

J

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 73

the world, justifying a resistance to the parent govern
ment, and required a skilful preparation. The com
mittee requested Mr Jefferson to execute the draught.
He excused himself; but on their pressing him with
urgency, he consented. He brought it from his study,
and laid it before the committee. As anticipated by
the writer, it was too strong for Mr Dickinson, who
still retained the hope of reconciliation with the mother
country, and was unwilling it should be lessened by of
fensive statements. He was so honest a man, says
Jefferson, * and so able a one, that he was greatly in
dulged even by those who could not feel his scruples.
They therefore requested him to take the paper, and re
mould it according to his own views. He did so : pre
paring an entire new statement, and retaining of the
former draught only the last four paragraphs and half
of the preceding one. The committee approved and
reported it. In Congress, it encountered the shrugs and
grimaces of the revolutionary party in every quarter of the
House ; and the desire of unanimity, ever predominant,
was the only motive which silenced their repugnance to
its lukewarmness. A humorous circumstance attending
its adoption is related by Mr Jefferson. It shows the
great disparity o*f opinion which prevailed in that body,
and the mutual sacrifices which were constantly requir
ed to preserve an unbroken* column.

Congress gave a signal proof of their indulgence to
Mr Dickinson, and of their great desire not to go too
fast for any respectable part of our body, in permitting
him to draw their second petition to the King, according
to his own ideas, and passing it with scarcely any
amendment. The disgust against its humility was gen
eral; and Mr Dickinson s delight at its passage was the
only circumstance which reconciled them to it. The
vote being passed, although farther observation on it
was out of order, he could not refrain from rising and
expressing his satisfaction, and concluded by saying,
" There is but one word, Mr President, in the paper
7*.

74 LIFE OF

which I disapprove, and that is the word Congress ; on
which Ben Harrison rose and said, " There is but one
word in the paper, Mr President, of which I approve,
and that is the word Congress."

This production enjoys a high reputation. The fact
that Mr Jefferson had any agency in its prepara
tion, or that so radical an opposition of views existed
in the Congress of 75, has never been stated by
any writer ; nor indeed had many interesting minutia?,
connected with our ancient history come to the light,
before the publication of his private * memoranda. As
a literary performance, and as a specimen of revolu
tionary fortitude perhaps unequalled, the effect of which
was to charge the entire responsibility of the war upon
Great Britain, it possesses great merit. But in a politi
cal point of view, it is insufferably tame and humilia
ting ; though even in that light, it was the best perhaps
that the circumstances of the times allowed, inasmuch
as it coincided with the sentiments of the great majority
of the American people. It abandoned the whole ground
which Mr Jefferson had taken in his draught, the ground
which he had uniformly maintained in his previous
writings, and the one which Congress themselves adopt
ed, the ensuing year, as the only orthodox and tenable
statement of their cause. It intimated a desire for an
amicable compact, something like Magna Charta, in
which doubtful, undefined points should be ascertained,
so as to secure that proportion of authority and liberty,
which would be for the general good of the whole em
pire. It claimed only a partial exemption from the au
thority of parliament ; expressed a willingness in the
colonies to contribute, in their own way, to the expenses
of government ; but made a traverse, at last, in prefer
ring the horrors of war to submission to the unlimited
supremacy of parliament.*

* Ramsay.

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 75

Such were the doctrines which influenced a very great
majority of Congress. The actual revolutionists were
a feeble body in the House. The decision of character
requisite to assume a posture so heretical at this time,
and so pregnant with the auguries of woe, desolation
and death, appeared almost supernatural. It was en
joyed by few even of that race of men. After stating
the grounds upon which they rested the justification of
their appeal to arms, the manifesto concludes in the
language of Mr Jefferson s draught.

It is worthy of remark that, while all historians have
concurred in ascribing the entire production to Mr Dick
inson, they have at the same time generally quoted only
Mr Jefferson s conclusion.

* We are reduced to the alternative of choosing an
unconditional submission to the tyranny of irritated
ministers, or resistance by force the latter is our
choice. We have counted the cost of this contest, and
find nothing so dreadful as voluntary slavery. Honor,
justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that
freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors,
and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive
from us. We cannot endure the infamy and guilt of
resigning succeeding generations to that wretchedness
which inevitably awaits them, if we basely entail here
ditary bondage upon them.

1 Our cause is just. Our union is perfect. Our in
ternal resources are great ; and, if necessary, foreign
assistance is undoubtedly attainable. We gratefully ac
knowledge, as signal instances of the Divine favor to
wards us, that his Providence would not permit us to be
called into this severe controversy, until we were grown
up to our present strength, had been previously exer
cised in warlike operation, and possessed of the means
of defending ourselves. With hearts fortified with these
animating reflections, we most solemnly, before God
and the world, declare, that, exerting the utmost energy
of those powers, which our beneficent Creator hath
graciously bestowed on us, the arms we have been com
pelled by our enemies to assume, we will, in defiance of

76 LIFE OF

every hazard, with unabating firmness and perseverance,
employ for the preservation of our liberties ; being with
one mind resolved to die freemen, rather than to live
slaves.

Lest this declaration should disquiet the minds of
our friends and fellow subjects in any part of the empire,
we assure them, that we mean not to dissolve that union
which has so long and so happily subsisted between us,
and which we sincerely wish to see restored necessity
has not yet driven us into that desperate measure, or
induced us to excite any other nation to war against
them we have not raised armies with ambitious de
signs of separating from Great Britain, and establish
ing independent States. We fight not for glory or for
conquest. We exhibit to mankind the remarkable spec
tacle, of a people attacked by unprovoked enemies,
without any imputation or even suspicion of offence.
They boast of their privileges and civilization, and yet
proffer no milder conditions than servitude or death.

In our own native land, in defence of the freedom
that is our birth right, and which we ever enjoyed until
the late violation of it for the protection of our pro
perty, acquired solely by the honest industry of our fore
fathers and ourselves, against violence actually offered,
we have taken up arms. We shall lay them down when
hostilities shall cease on the part of the aggressors, and
all danger of their being renewed shall be removed
and not before.

4 With an humble confidence in the mercies of the
supreme and impartial Judge and Ruler of the universe,
we most devoutly implore his divine goodness to protect
us happily through this great conflict, to dispose our
adversaries to reconciliation on reasonable terms, and
thereby to relieve the empire from the calamities of civil
war.

This declaration was published to the army by Gen
eral Washington ; and proclaimed from the pulpit, with
great solemnity, by the ministers of religion.

On the 22d of July, Congress took into consideration
the conciliatory proposition of Lord North. This was
a final peace measure, and it is said they delayed their

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 77

answer, under pretext of dignity, with a view to wait
the event of the first actions, from which they might
draw some prognostics of the probable issue of the war.
However this may be, they exercised great discrimina
tion in constituting the committee who should prepare
the instrument. Being elected by ballot, the number of
votes received by each, decided his station on the com
mittee which was in the following order : Dr Frank
lin, Mr Jefferson, John Adams and Richard H. Lee. A
stronger committee could not have been raised in that
House. It combined the greatest maturity of judgment,
with the soundest revolutionary principles. It was a
signal compliment to Mr Jefferson, who was but a new
member, and the youngest man in the whole body. The
answer of the Virginia Assembly upon the same subject
having been read and admired, the committee requested
its distinguished author to prepare the present report.
He consented ; and as before observed, made his reply
on the former occasion the basis of this. Although
intimately blended with the reputation of the writer,
and next in importance at that time to the Declaration
of Independence, its great length excludes it from a
place in this volume.

On the first of August, Congress adjourned, to meet
again on the 5th of September following.

The following letters, which Mr Jefferson addressed
at this critical time to a friend in England, are rare
revolutionary fragments. They show how little there
was of any thing but principle, which entered into the
motives of a principal actor, and one who was pro
scribed as unpardonable among the movers of the re
bellion.

Monticello, August 25, 1775.

* DEAR SIR, I am sorry the situation of our country
should render it not eligible to you to remain longer in
it. I hope the returning wisdom of Great Britain will,
ere long, put an end to this unnatural contest. There

78 LIFE OP

may be people to whose tempers and dispositions, con
tention is pleasing, and who, therefore, wish a con
tinuance of confusion ; but to me, it is of all states but
one, the most horrid. My first wish is a restoration of
our just rights ; my second, a return of the happy pe
riod, when, consistently with duty, I rnay withdraw
myself totally from the public stage, and pass the rest
of my days in domestic ease and tranquillity, banishing
every desire of ever hearing what passes in the world.
Perhaps, (for the latter adds considerably to the warmth
of the former wish,) looking with fondness towards a
reconciliation with Great Britain, I cannot help hoping
you may be able to contribute towards expediting .this
good work. I think it must be evident to yourself that
the Ministry have been deceived by their officers on this
side of the water, who (for what purpose, I cannot tell)
have constantly represented the American opposition as
that of a small faction, in which the body of the people
took little part. This, you can inform them, of your
own knowledge, is untrue. They have taken it into
their heads, too, that we are cowards, and shall surren
der at discretion to an armed force. The past and fu
ture operations of the war must confirm or undeceive
them on that head. I wish they were thoroughly and
minutely acquainted with every circumstance relative to
America, as it exists in truth. I am persuaded, this
would go far towards disposing them to reconciliation.
Even those in parliament who are called friends to
America, seem to know nothing of our real determina
tions. I observe, they pronounced in the last parlia
ment, that the Congress of 1774, did not mean to insist
rigorously on the terms they held out, but kept some
thing in reserve, to give up ; and, in fact, that they
would give up every thing but the article of taxation.
Now, the truth is far from this, as I can affirm, and put
my honor to the assertion. Their continuance in this
error may perhaps produce very ill consequences. The
Congress stated the lowest terms they thought possible
to be accepted, in order to convince the world they were
not unreasonable. They gave up the monopoly and
regulation of trade, and all acts of parliament prior to
1764, leaving to British generosity to render these, at

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 79

some future time, as easy to America, as the interest of
Britain would admit. But this was before blood was
spilt. I cannot affirm, but have reason to think, these
terms would not now be accepted. I wish no false sense
of honor, no ignorance of our real intentions, no vain
hope that partial concessions of right will be accepted,
may induce the Ministry to trifle with accommodation,
till it shall be out of their power ever to accommodate.
If, indeed, Great Britain, disjoined from her colonies,
be a match for the most potent nations of Europe, with
the colonies thrown into their scale, they may go on
securely. But if they are not assured of this, it would
be certainly unwise, by trying the event of another
campaign, to risk our accepting a foreign aid, which
perhaps may not be obtainable, but on condition of ever
lasting avulsion from Great Britain. This would be
thought a hard condition to those who still wish for re
union with their parent country. I am sincerely one of
those ; and would rather be in dependence on Great
Britain, properly limited, than on any nation upon earth,
or than on no nation. But I am one of those, too, who,
rather than submit to the rights of legislating for us, as
sumed by the British parliament, and which late expe
rience has shown they will so cruelly exercise, would
lend my hand to sink the whole island in the ocean.

8 If undeceiving the Minister, as to matters of fact, may
change his disposition, it will perhaps be in your power,
by assisting to do this, to render service to the whole
empire at the most critical time, certainly, that it has
ever seen. Whether Britain shall continue the head of
the greatest empire on earth, or shall return to her
original station in the political scale of Europe, depends,
perhaps, on the resolutions of the succeeding winter.
God send they may be wise and salutary for us all. I
shall be glad to hear from you as often as you may be
disposed to think of things here. You may be at liberty,
I expect, to communicate some things, consistently with
your honor and the duties you will owe to a protecting
nation. Such a communication among individuals may
be mutually beneficial to the contending parties. On
this or any future occasion, if I affirm to you any facts,
your knowledge of me will enable you to decide on their

80 LIFE OF

credibility ; if I hazard opinions on the dispositions of
men or other speculative points, you can only know they
are my opinions. My best wishes for your felicity at
tend you wherever you go ; and believe me to be, assur
edly, your friend and servant.

Philadelphia, Nov. 29, 1775.

Dear Sir, * * * * * * It is an immense
misfortune to the whole empire, to have a King of such
a disposition at such a time. We are told, and every
thing proves it true, that he is the bitterest enemy we
have. His Minister is able, and that satisfies me, that
ignorance or wickedness somewhere, controls him. In
an earlier part of this contest, our petitions told him,
that from our King there was but one appeal. The ad
monition was despised, and that appeal forced on us.
To undo his empire, he has but one truth more to learn :
that, after colonies have drawn the sword, there is but
one step more they can take. That step is now pressed
upon us by the measures adopted, as if they were afraid
we would not take it. Believe me, dear Sir, there is not
in the British empire a man who more cordially loves a
union with Great Britain than I do. But, by the God
that made me, I will cease to exist before I yield to a
connection on such terms as the British Parliament
propose ; and in this, I think I speak the sentiments of
America. We want neither inducement nor power to
declare and assert a separation, it is will alone which
is wanting ; and that is growing apace under the foster
ing hand of our King. One bloody campaign will pro
bably decide everlastingly our future course ; I am sorry
to find a bloody campaign is decided on. If our winds
and waters should not combine to rescue their shores
from slavery, and General Howe s reinforcement should
arrive in safety, we have hopes he will be Inspirited to
come out of Boston and take another drubbing ; and we
must drub him soundly, before the sceptred tyrant will
know we are not mere brutes, to crouch under his hand,
and kiss the rod with which he deigns to scourge us.
Yours, &c.

Mr Jefferson was re-elected to Congress in August,
1775, and again in June, 76 ; continuing a member of

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 81

that body, without intermission, until he resigned his
seat in September, 76.

During his absence however, at Philadelphia, he was
not inattentive to the affairs of his native state. He
maintained a constant correspondence with the patriot
leaders in that province, particularly Mr Wythe, and
stimulated them, if any stimulus was wanting, to the
strongest measures of political enfranchisement. Hav
ing headed the principal movements of a civil character
in Virginia, he exercised a preponderating influence in
her councils.

The dissolution of the regal, and substitution of the
popular administration in Virginia, was unattended by a
single convulsion. But as yet, no settled form of gov
ernment had been established. There was no constitft-
tion, and no distinct executive head. The legislative,
judiciary, and executive functions were all lodged in one
body the colonial convention. This was the grand
depository of the whole political power of the province.
Although confined to his station in congress and op
pressed with the cares of the general administration, Mr
Jefferson could not overlook in silence, the dangers to
be apprehended from so jarring a combination of funda
mental powers in the political establishment of Virginia ;
and he exerted his influence to procure a more perfect
organization, at the meeting of the next convention.

The Convention assembled at Williamsburg on the
6th of May, 1776, when the vices of the existing system
were removed by the adoption of a DECLARATION OF
RIGHTS and a CONSTITUTION, which have continued
without alteration from that day until the convention of
1829. The subject was brought forward on the 15th of
May, by colonel Archibald Gary, who moved the ap
pointment of a committee * to prepare a declaration of
rights and plan of government, to maintain peace and
order in the colony, and secure substantial and equal
liberty to the people. Whereupon a committee of
8

82 LIFE OF

thirty-four persons was appointed, consisting of the
wisest heads and firmest hearts of Virginia ; of whom,
that veteran republican, George Mason, was one.

The question now arises, which has been so often
agitated What particular agency, if any, had Mr
*Jefferson in the formation of the Virginia Constitution ?
He was distant from the scene of the Convention, and
immersed in the complicated duties of his official station.
This question has within a few years been put to rest by
Mr Girardin, in his Continuation of Burke s History of
Virginia. This gentleman had free access to Mr Jeffer
son s papers while compiling his history, and has pre
sented the matter in a clear light.

It appears that the entire Preamble, and some portions
of the body of the instrument, are the production of Mr
t Jefferson ; but the bulk of the constitution, including the
Declaration of Rights, is the work of George Mason.
Eager in the great work of political reformation, the
former had composed at Philadelphia, and transmitted
to his friend Mr Wythe, the draught of an entire plan
of government, comprehending a preamble, declaration
of rights, and constitution. But his plan was not receiv
ed until a previous one had .gone through a committee
of the whole, and been submitted to the convention for
their final sanction. It was then too late to adopt it
entire. t Mr Jefferson s valuable communication, says
Mr Girardin, reached the convention just at the mo
ment when the plan originally drawn up by colonel
George Mason, and afterwards discussed and amended,
was to receive the final sanction of that venerable body.
It was now too late to retrace previous steps ; the ses
sion had already been uncommonly laborious ; and con
siderations of personal delicacy hindered those, to whom
Mr Jefferson s ideas were imparted, from proposing or
urging new alterations. Two or three parts of his plan,
and the whole of his preamble, however, were adopted ;
and to this circumstance must be ascribed the strong

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 83

similitude between the Preamble, and the Declaration of
Independence subsequently issued by the Continental
Congress, both having been traced by the same pen.
In the Life of Patrick Henry, it is also stated : There
now exists among the archives of this State, an original
rough draught of a Constitution for Virginia, in the
hand-writing of Mr Jefferson, containing this identical
preamble. The body of the constitution had been
adopted by the committee of the whole, before the arrival
of Mr Jefferson s plan : his preamble, however, was pre
fixed to the instrument ; and some of the modifications
proposed by him, introduced into the body of it.

The constitution was adopted unanimously,* on the
29th of June, 1776 ; and to that date may be referred /
the first establishment of self-government, by a written }s
compact, in the western continent, and probably in the
whole world. It formed the model for all the other
States, as they successively recovered themselves from
the parent monarchy. The example of Virginia was
soon followed by other provinces, and the popular ad
ministrations succeeded to the regal with astonishing
rapidity.

The following paragraph in a letter to Major John
Cartwright, in 1824, will suffice to show the general light
in which Mr Jefferson viewed the first republican char
ter, as well as the extent to which he carried his dem
ocratic theory, in 1776.

Virginia, of which I am myself a native and resident,
was- not only the first of the States, but, I believe I may
say, the first of the nations of the earth, which assem
bled its wise men peaceably together, to form a funda
mental constitution, to commit it to writing, and place it
among their archives, where every one should be free to
appeal to its text. But this act was very imperfect.
The other States, as they proceeded successfully to the
same work, made successive improvements ; and several
of them, still further corrected by experience, have, by
conventions, still further amended their first forms. My

84 LIFE OF

own State has gone on so far with its premiere ebauche ;
but it is now proposing to call a convention for amend
ment. Among the other improvements, I hope they will
adopt the subdivision of our counties into wards. The
former may be estimated at an average of twenty-four
miles square ; the latter should be about six miles square
each, and would answer to the hundreds of your Saxon
Alfred. In each of these might be, 1. An elementary
school. 2. A company of militia, with its officers. 3.
A justice of the peace and constable. 4. Each ward
should take care of their own poor. 5. Their own roads.
6. Their own police. 7. Elect within themselves one or
more jurors to attend the courts of justice. And, 8.
Give in at their Folk-house, their votes for all function
aries reserved to their election. Each ward would thus
be a small republic within itself, and every man in the
State would thus become an acting member of the com
mon government, transacting in person a great portion
of its rights and duties, subordinate indeed, yet impor
tant and entirely within his competence. The wit of
man cannot devise a more solid basis for a free, durable,
and well-administered Republic.

This was the remarkable extent to which Mr Jeffer
son carried his theory of popular government at the first
leap. That he had imbibed these doctrines so early
as 76, is evident ; for in his celebrated Revisal of the
Laws of Virginia, commenced in the autumn of that
year, he introduced a proposition for dividing the whole
State into wards of six miles square, and for imparting
to each, those identical portions of self-government above
described.

This Convention aspired to a higher agency in direct
ing the course of the Revolution. The same hour which
gave birth to the proposition for establishing the new
government, was signalized by the adoption of a recom
mendation, which pointed directly to the grand object of
the struggle. The resolution containing it, was conceiv
ed in the following terms :

Resolved, unanimously, That the Delegates appoint-

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 85

ed to represent this Colony in Genera] Congress, be in
structed to propose to that respectable body, to DECLARE
THE UNITED COLONIES FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES,
absolved from all allegiance to, or dependance upon, the
Crown or Parliament of Great Britain ; and that they
give the assent of this Colony to such declaration, and
to whatever measures may be thought proper and neces
sary by the Congress, for forming foreign alliances, and
A CONFEDERATION OF THE COLONIES, at such time, and in
the manner, as to them shall seem best. Provided, that
the power of forming government for, and the regulation
of, the internal concerns of each Colony, be left to the
respective Colonial Legislatures.

The intelligence of this denouement was received with
a general feeling of approbation throughout the coun
try, and in many places with demonstrations of joy. It
was the signal for corresponding manifestations in most
of the provincial Legislatures, and in the course of a
short period, a great majority of the Representatives in
Congress were instructed to the same effect.

At this moment, the author of * Common Sense light
ed his fiercest torch. The efforts of this unrivalled pro
pagandist, were powerfully reinforced by those solid ap
peals to the reason and conscience, which were pro
pounded to individual characters of weight in different
sections, through the dignified medium of private cor
respondence. This was the great political lever of Mr
Jefferson. These active moral causes, mingling in con
fluence, poured a steady stream of excitement into the
popular mind. The brilliant success of the American
arms, in several important engagements, strengthened
the general feeling.

In Congress also, at this period (May 76) correspond
ing advances had been made in political sentiment.
The doctrines of Mr Jefferson were now clearly in the
ascendant. It was no longer heresy to maintain the
sovereignty of the people, and the co-ordinate sove
reignty of the States with Great Britain in all matters
8*

86 LIFE OF

of government, external as well as internal ; at least, it
was not so in practice, however it may have been in the
abstract. The revolutionary party were predominant.
A powerful minority, however, still existed, who clung
with filial reverence to the supposed ties which bound
them in conscience and honor to the parent government.
But happily, this party were terribly shaken in their faith
by a recent act of Parliament, which declared the Col
onies in a state of rebellion, and out of the protection of
the British Crown. They reasoned from this, that as
protection and dependance were reciprocal, the one hav
ing ceased, the other might also ; and that therefore,
Great Britain herself had actually declared them inde
pendent ! This was a sound conclusion ; and who can
sufficiently admire the stupendous folly of the British
Parliament 1 Still, however, cautious approaches to the
last extremities were requisite to preserve the general
assent of the people.

A preparatory step was accordingly taken by the pa
triots, which discovered great address. A resolution was
proposed, declaring that whereas the government of
Great Britain had excluded the United Colonies from the
protection of the Grown,, it was therefore irreconcilable
to reason and good conscience, for the people to con
tinue their allegiance to the government under that
crown ; and they accordingly recommended the several
colonies to establish independent governments of their own*

This resolution was adopted on the 15th of May ; and
by a remarkable coincidence the Convention of Virginia
had, on the same day, adopted the resolution appointing
a committee to prepare a declaration of rights and plan
of government for that colony. It is said that Mr Jef
ferson, being constantly apprised of the progress of the
Convention, promoted this singular concurrence of pa
rallel results with a view to popular effect. Be this as it
may, he was an ardent supporter of the measure in con
gress ; regarding it as the entering wedge to the grand

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 87

proposition which he throbbed with impatience to see
carried. ,

On the 28th of May, upon motion of Mr Jefferson,
congress resolved that an animated address be publish
ed, to impress the minds of the people with the necessi
ty of now stepping forward to save their country, their \
freedom, and their property. Being appointed chair
man of the committee upon this resolution, he prepared
the address; and an animated one it was ; .conceived in
his happiest mariner, with a power of expression and of
argument, which carried conviction and courage to the
breast of every man. This was another ingenious stroke
of policy, designed to prepare the popular mind for a
favorable reception of the momentous decision in reserve.

The plot of the drama now began to thicken. The
delegates from Virginia received their instructions early
in June, and immediately held a conference to devise
suitable means for their due execution. Richard H.
Lee, being the oldest in the delegation, and endowed
with extraordinary powers of eloquence, was designated
to make the introductory motion, and the seventh of
June was ordered as the day. Accordingly, on that day
he rose from his seat and moved that congress should
declare, That these United Colonies are, and of right
ought to be, free and independent States ; that they are ab
solved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that
all political connection between them and the State of
Great Britain, is, and ought to be, totally dissolved ; that
measures should be immediately taken for procuring the
assistance of foreign powers, and a Confederation be
formed to bind the colonies more closely together.

The House being obliged to attend at that time, to
some other business, the proposition was deferred till
the next day, when the members were ordered to attend
punctually at ten o clock.

Saturday, June 8th, Congress proceeded to take the
subject into consideration, and referred it to a Commit-

LIFE OF

tee of the Whole, into which they immediately resolved
themselves, and passed that day and Monday, the 10th,
in warm and vehement debates.

The conflict was painful. The grounds of opposition
to the measure affected its expediency as to time, rather
than its absolute propriety, and were strenuously urged
by Dickinson and Wilson of Pennsylvania, Robert R.
Livingston of New-York, Edward Rutledge of South
Carolina, and some others. The leading advocates of
the immediate declaration of independence were Mr
Jefferson, John and Samuel Adams, Lee, Wythe, and
some others. The heads only of the arguments de
livered on this interesting occasion, have been preserved
by one man alone, Mr Jefferson, and they owe their
first disclosure to the world, to his posthumous publica
tion.*

The tenor of the debate indicated such a strength of
opposition to the measure, that it was deemed impolitic
to press it at this time. The Colonies of New- York,
New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and
South Carolina, were not yet matured for falling from
the parent stem, but as they were fast advancing to that
state, it was thought most prudent to wait awhile for
them. The final decision of the question was therefore
postponed to the 1st of July. But, that this might occa
sion as little delay as possible, it was ordered that a
committee be appointed to prepare a DECLARATION OF
INDEPENDENCE, in accordance with the motion. Mr Jef
ferson having the highest number of votes, was placed
at the head of this Committee ; the other members were
John Adams, Dr Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert
R. Livingston. The Committee met, and unanimously
solicited Mr Jefferson to prepare the draught of the De
claration alone. He drew it ; but before submitting it
to the Committee, he communicated it separately to Dr

* See Vol. I, Jefferson s Works.

THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Franklin and Mr Adams, with a view to avail himself of
the benefit of their criticisms. They criticised it, and
suggested two or three alterations, merely verbal, intend
ed to soften somewhat the original phraseology. The
Committee unanimously approved it ; and on Friday,
the 28th of June, he reported it to Congress, when it was
read and ordered to lie on the table.

On Monday the first of July, agreeably to assignment,
the House resolved itself into a committee of the whole,
and resumed the consideration of the preliminary motion.
It was debated again through the day, and finally carri
ed in the affirmative by the votes of New-Hampshire
Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode-Island, New-Jersey,
Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia. South
Carolina and Pennsylvania voted against it. Delaware
had but two members present, and they were divided.
The Delegates from New-York declared they were for
it themselves, and were assured their constituents were
for it ; but that their instructions having been drawn near
a twelvemonth before, when reconciliation was still the
general object, they were enjoined by them to do nothing
which should impede that object. They therefore thought
themselves not justifiable in voting on either side, and
asked leave to withdraw from the question ; which was
granted them. In this state of things, the Committee
rose and reported their resolution to the House. Mr
Edward Rutledge, of South Carolina, then requested that
the decision might be put off to the next day, as he
believed his colleagues, though they disapproved of the
resolution, would then join in it for the sake of unanimi
ty. The ultimate decision by the House was according
ly postponed to the next day, July 2d, when it was again
moved, and South Carolina concurred in voting for it.
In the mean time, a third member had come post from
the Delaware counties, and turned the vote of that Colo
ny in favor of the resolution. Members of a different
sentiment attending that morning from Pennsylvania,

90 LIFE OF

her vote also was changed ; so that the whole twelve
Colonies, who were authorised to vote at all, gave their
voice for it ; and within a few days, July 9th, the Con
vention of New- York approved of it, and thus supplied
the void occasioned by the withdrawal of her Delegates
from the question.

It should be observed that these fluctuations and the
final vote were upon the original motion, to declare the
Colonies independent.

Congress proceeded the same day, July 3d, to consider
tjie Declaration of Independence, which had been report
ed the 28th of June, and ordered to lie on the table.
The debates were again renewed with great violence
greater than before. Tremendous was the ordeal through
which the title-deed of our liberties, perfect as it had
issued from the hands of its artificer, was destined
to pass. Inch by inch, was its progress through the
House disputed. Every dictum of peculiar political force,
and almost every expression was made a subject of ac
rimonious animadversion by the anti-revolutionists. On
the other hand, the champions of Independence con
tended with the constancy of martyrs, for every tenet
and every word of the precious gospel of their faith.
Among the latter class, the Author of the Declaration
himself has assigned to John Adams the station of pre
eminence. Thirty-seven years afterwards, he declared
that * Mr Adams was the pillar of its support on the floor
of Congress, its ablest advocate and defender against the
multifarious assaults it encountered. At another time,
he said John Adams was our Colossus on the floor.
Not graceful, not elegant, not always fluent in his public
addresses, he yet came out with a power, both of thought
and of expression, which moved us from our seats.

The debates were continued with unremitting heat
through the 2d, 3d, and 4th days of July, till on the
evening of the last the most important day perhaps,
politically speaking, that the world ever saw they were

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 91

brought to a close. The principle of unanimity finally
prevailed; reciprocal concessions, sufficient to unite all
on the solid ground of the main purpose, were made.
In the generous spirit of compromise, however, some of
the most splendid specifications in the American Char
ter were surrendered. On some of these it is well known
the author himself set the highest value, as recognizing
principles to which he was enthusiastically partial, and
which were almost peculiar to him. His scorching
malediction against the traffickers in human blood, stood
conspicuously among the latter. The light in which he
viewed these depredations upon the original, may be
gathered from the following memorandum of the trans
action ; in which too, he betrays a fact in relation to
New England, that is not generally known.

The pusillanimous idea that we had friends in Eng
land worth keeping terms with, still haunted the minds
of many. For this reason, those passages which con
veyed censures on the people of England, were struck
out, lest they should give them offence. The clause too,
reprobating the enslaving the inhabitants of Africa, was
struck out, in complaisance to South Carolina and
Georgia, who had never attempted to restrain the im
portation of slaves, and who, on the contrary, still wish
ed to continue it. Our northern brethren also, I believe,
felt a little tender under those censures ; for though the
people had very few slaves themselves, yet they had been
pretty considerable carriers of them to others.

For the purpose of comparing the original, with the
amended form, the Declaration shall be presented as it
came from the hands of the author. The parts strick
en out by Congress are printed in italics, and inclosed
in brackets ; and those inserted by them are placed in
the margin. The sentiments of men are known by
what they reject, as well as by what they receive, and
the comparison in the present case, will demonstrate the
singular forwardness of one mind on certain great prin
ciples of Political Science.

92 LIFE OP

A Declaration by the Representatives of the United
States of America, in General Congress assembled.

When, in the course of human events, it
becomes necessary for one people to dissolve
the political bands which have connected
them with another, and to assume among the
powers of the earth, the separate and equal
station to which the laws of nature and of
nature s God entitle them, a decent respect
to the opinions of mankind requires, that
they should declare the causes which impel
them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident :
that all men are created equal; that they
are endowed by their Creator with [inherent
and] inalienable rights ; that among these
are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ;
that to secure these rights, governments are
instituted among men, deriving their just
powers from the consent of the governed ;
that whenever any form of government be
comes destructive of these ends, it is the
right of a people to alter or abolish it, and
to institute a new government, laying its foun
dation on such principles, and organizing its
powers in such form, as to them shall seem
most likely to effect their safety and happi
ness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that
governments long established should not be
changed for light and transient causes ; and
accordingly all experience hath shown that
mankind are more disposed to suffer while
evils are sufferable, than to right themselves
by abolishing the forms to which they are
accustomed. But when a long train of abuses
and usurpations [begun at a distinguished pe
riod and] pursuing invariably the same ob
ject, evinces a design to reduce them under
absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their
duty to throw off such government, and to
provide new guards for their future security.

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 93

Such has been the patient sufferance of the
Colonies ; and such is now the necessity
which constrains them to [expunge] their alter
former systems of government. The his
tory of the present King of Great Britain is
a history of [unremitting] injuries and usur- repeated
pations, [among which appears no solitary fact
to contradict the uniform tenor of the rest, but
all have] in direct object the establishment of all having
an absolute tyranny over these States. To
prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid
world [for the truth ofichich we pledge a faith
yet unsullied by falsehood.]

He has refused his assent to laws the most
wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his governors to pass
laws of immediate and pressing importance,
unless suspended in their operation till his
assent should be obtained ; and, when so sus
pended, he has utterly neglected to attend to
them.

He has refused to pass other laws for the
accommodation of large districts of people,
unless those people would relinquish the right
of representation in the legislature, a right
inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants
only.

He has called together legislative bodies
at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant
from the depository of their public records,
for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into
compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved representative Houses re
peatedly [and isLv *tini/ ally] for opposing with
manly firmness his invasions on the rights of
the people.

He has refused for a long time after such
dissolutions to cause others to be elected,
whereby the legislative powers, incapable of
annihilation, have returned to the people at
large for their exercise, the State remaining,
in the mean time, exposed to all the dangers
9

94 LIFE OF

of invasion from without and convulsions
within.

He has endeavored to prevent the popula
tion of these States ; for that purpose ob
structing the laws for naturalization of for
eigners, refusing to pass others to encourage
their migrations hither, and raising the con
ditions of new appropriations of lands,
obstructed He has [suffered] the administration of
justice [totally to cease in some of these
by States ] refusing his assent to laws for esta

blishing judiciary powers.

He has made [our] judges dependant on
his will alone for the tenure of their offices,
and the amount and payment of their
salaries.

He has erected a multitude of new offices,
[by a self assumed power] and sent hither
swarms of new officers to harass our people,
and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us in times of peace
standing armies [and ships of war] without
the consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the military in
dependent of, and superior to, the civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us
to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitutions
and unacknowledged by our laws, giving his
assent to their acts of pretended legislation
for quartering large bodies of armed troops
among us ; for protecting them by a mock
trial from punishment for any rau T :de "s which
they should commit on the s . habitants of
these States ; for cutting ?v: *ur trade with
all parts of the world ; for imposing taxes
on us without our consent ; for depriving us
in many [ ] of the benefits of trial by jury ; for trans-
cases porting us beyond seas to be tried for pre
tended offences ; for abolishing the free sys
tem of English laws in a neighboring Pro
vince, establishing therein an arbitrary gov
ernment, and enlarging its boundaries, so as

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 95

to render it at once an example and fit in
strument for introducing the same absolute
rule into these [states] ; for taking away our colonies
charters, abolishing our most valuable laws,
and altering fundamentally the forms of our
governments ; for suspending our own legis
latures, and declaring themselves invested
with power to legislate for us in all cases
whatsoever.

He has abdicated government here [with- by declaring
drawing his governors, and declaring us out of us out of his
his allegiance and protection.]

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our
coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the U s
lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large armies
of foreign mercenaries to complete the works
of death, desolation, and tyranny already be
gun with circumstances of cruelty and per
fidy [ 1 unworthy the head of a civilized scarcely par-
nation. aSttuAM?

He has constrained our fellow-citizens ous a es ant i
taken captive on the high seas to bear arms totally
against their country, to become the execu
tioners of their friends and brethren, or to
fall themselves by their hands.

He has [ ] endeavored to bring on the in- excited do-
habitants of our frontiers the merciless In-
dian Savages, whose known rule of warfare amon(r us ,
is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, and has
sexes and conditions [of existence.]

[He has incited treasonable insurrections of
our fellow- citizens, with the allurements of for
feiture and confiscation of our property.

He has urged cruel war against human na
ture itself, violating its most sacred rights of
life and liberty in the persons of a distant peo
ple who never offended him, captivating and
carrying them into slavery in another hemi
sphere, or to incur miserable death in their
transportation thither. This piratical war
fare, the opprobrium of INFIDEL powers, is the

96 LIFE OF

warfare of the CHRISTIAN king of Great Brit
ain. Determined to keep open a market where
MEN should be bought and sold, he has prosti
tuted his negative for suppressing every legis
lative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this ex
ecrable commerce. And that this assemblage of
horrors might want no fact of distinguished
die, he is now exciting those very people to rise
in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty
of which he has deprived them, by murdering
the people on whom he also obtruded them : thus
paying off former crimes committed against the
LIBERTIES of one people with crimes which he
urges them to commit against the LIVES of an
other. ]

In every stage of these oppressions we
have petitioned for redress in the most hum
ble terms : our repeated petitions have been
answered only by repeated injuries.

A prince whose character is thus marked
by every act which may define a tyrant is
free unfit to be the ruler of a [ ] people [who

mean to be free. Future ages will scarcely
believe that the hardiness of one man adventur
ed, within the short compass of twelve years
only, to lay a foundation so broad and so
undisguised for tyranny over a people fos
tered and Jixed in principles of freedom.]

Nor have we been wanting in attentions to
our British brethren. We have warned them
from time to time of attempts by their legis-
an unwar- lature to extend [a] jurisdiction over [these
rantable our states.] We have reminded them of the
us circumstances of our emigration and settle

ment here [wo one of which could warrant so
strange a pretension : that these were effected
at the expense of our own blood and treasure,
unassisted by the wealth or the strength of
Great Britain : that in constituting indeed our
several forms of government, we had adopted
one common king, thereby laying a foundation
for perpetual league and amity with them : but

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 97

that submission to their parliament was no part
of our constitution, nor ever in idea, if history
may be credited : and,] we [ ] appealed to have
their native justice and magnanimity [as we// and we have
as to] the ties of our common kindred to dis- conjured
avow these usurpations which [were likely to] them bv
interrupt our connection and correspond- would inevit-
ence. They too have been deaf to the voice abl ^
of justice and of consanguinity, [and when
occasions have been given them, by the regular
course of their laws, of removing from their
councils the disturbers of our harmony, they
have, by their free election, re-established them
in power. At this very time too, they are per
mitting their chief magistrate to send over not
only soldiers of our common blood, but Scotch
and foreign mercenaries to invade and destroy
us. These facts have given the last stab to
agonizing affection, and manly spirit bids us
to renounce for ever these unfeeling brethren.
We must endeavor to forget our former love
for them, and hold them as we hold the rest
of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.
We might have been a free and a great people
together ; but a communication of grandeur
and of freedom, it see?ns, is below their dignity.
Be it so, since they ivill have it* The road to
happiness and to glory is open to us too. We We must
will tread it apart from them, and] acquiesce therefore
in the necessity which denounces our [eter
nal] separation [ ] ! and hold

them as we
hold the rest
of mankind,
enemies in
war, in peace,
friends.

We, therefore, the representatives
of the United States of America in appealing to the supremo

General Congress assembled, [ ] doj" d e ? the world for
, & , , , i J the rectitude of our m-

in the name, and by the authority tentions

of the good people of these [states co i onies , solemnly pub-
reject and renounce all allegiance and lish and declare, that

9*

98 LIFE OF

these united colonies are, subjection to the kings of Great Brit-
and of right ought to ain and all others w]w ma hereafter

SteTr &%%? ^ ^ ^ough, or under them ; we
solved from all alle- utterly dissolve all political connec-
giance to the British tion ivhich may heretofore have sub-
crown, and that all po- sisted l ctween us ana the people or
liucal connection be- 7 . _r *~i . i- * j

tween them and the state parliament of Great Britain: and
of Great Britain is, and finally we do assert and declare these
ought to be, totally dis- colonies to be free and independent
states,] and that as free and inde
pendent states, they have full power
to levy war, conclude peace, con
tract alliances, establish commerce,
and do all other acts and things
which independent states may of
right do.

And for the support of this decla-

with a firm reliance on ration, [ ] we mutually pledge to
the protection of divine each other our lives, our fortunes,
providence, an( j our sacre d honor.

The world has long since passed judgment upon the
relative merits of these two forms of the American
Declaration, and awarded the meed of pre-eminence to
the primitive one. The amendments obliterated some
of its best and brightest features ; impaired the beauty
and force of others ; and softened the general tone of
the whole instrument.

The Declaration thus amended in committee of the
whole, was reported to the House on the 4th of July,
agreed to, and signed by every member present except
Mr Dickinson. On the 19th of July it was ordered to be
engrossed on parchment ; and on the 2d of August, the
engrossed copy, after being compared at the table with
the original, was ordered to be signed by every member.

On the same day that Independence was declared, Mr
Jefferson was appointed one of a committee of three, to
devise an appropriate Coat of Arms for the republic of
the United States of America.

The Declaration was received by the people with un-

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 99

bounded admiration and joy. On the 8th of July it was
promulgated with great solemnity, at Philadelphia, and
saluted by the assembled multitude with peals on peals
of acclamation. On the llth it was published in New
York, and proclaimed before the American Army, then
assembled in the vicinity, with all the pomp and circum
stance of a military pageant. It was received with ex
ultation by the collected chivalry of the Revolution.
They filled the air with their shouts, and shook the earth
with the thunders of their artillery. In Boston, the
popular transports were unparalleled. The national
manifesto was proclaimed from the balcony of the capi-
tol, in the presence of all the authorities, civil and mili
tary, and of an innumerable concourse of people. An
immense banquet was prepared, at which the authori
ties and all the principal citizens attended, and drank
toasts expressive of enthusiastic veneration for liberty,
and of detestation of tyrants. The rejoicings were con
tinued through the night, and every ensign of royalty
that adorned either the public or private edifice, was
demolished before morning.

Similar demonstrations of patriotic enthusiasm attend
ed the reception of the Declaration in all the cities and
chief towns of the continent.

In Virginia, the annunciation was greeted with graver
tokens of public felicitation. The convention decreed
that the name of the King should be expunged from the
liturgy of the established religion. All the remaining
emblems of royal authority were superseded by appro
priate representations of the new order of things. A
new coat of arms for the commonwealth was immedi
ately ordered.

The author of the Declaration himself was not un
conscious of the amazing consequences which would
flow from it, when thus ushered before the world as the
simultaneous fiat of the whole people. On the contrary,
they formed the theme of his constant reflection and

100 LIFE OP

of his proudest prognostications. The emancipation of
the whole family of nations, as the ultimate result, was
the immovable conviction of his mind. It was in unison
with the reveries of his early youth ; and experience
but confirmed him in the animating presentiment. Stir
ring effusions upon this topic abound in his private mem
oranda, and in his familiar correspondence with friends.
Speaking of the French Revolution as the first link in
the chain of great consequences, he says, in his notes
upon that ill-starred drama :

As yet, we are but in the first chapter of its history.
The appeal to the rights of man, which had been made
in the United States, was taken up by France, first of
the European nations. From her the spirit has spread
over those of the South. The tyrants of the North have
allied indeed against it ; but it is irresistible. Their op
position will only multiply its millions of human victims;
their own satellites will catch it, and the condition of
man will be finally and greatly meliorated. This is a
wonderful instance of great events from small causes.
So inscrutable is the arrangement of causes and conse
quences in this world, that a two-penny duty on tea, un
justly imposed in a sequestered part of it, changes the
condition of all its inhabitants.

Again, in a letter to John Adams, in 1823, the kind
ling prophecy is pursued.

The generation which commences a revolution rare
ly completes it. Habituated from their infancy to passive
submission of body and mind to their kings and priests,
they are not qualified, when called on, to think and pro
vide for themselves; and their inexperience, their ignor
ance and bigotry, make them instruments often, in the
hands of the Bonapartes and Iturbides, to defeat their
own rights and purposes. This is the present situation
of Europe and Spanish America. But it is not desper
ate. The light which has been shed on mankind by the
art of printing, has eminently changed the condition of
the world. As yet, that light has dawned on the mid
dling classes only of the men in Europe. The kings

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 101

and the rabble, of equal ignorance, have not yet receiv
ed its rays ; but it continues to spread, and while print
ing is preserved, it can no more recede than the sun re
turn on his course. A first attempt to recover the right
of self-government may fail, so may a second, a third,
&c. But as a younger and more instructed race comes
on, the sentiment becomes more and more intuitive,
and a fourth, a fifth, or some subsequent one of the
ever-renewed attempts will ultimately succeed. In
France, the first effort was defeated by Robespierre, the
second by Bonaparte, the third by Louis XVIII, and
his holy allies; another is yet to come, and all Europe,
Russia excepted, has caught the spirit ; and all will at
tain representative government, more or less perfect.
This is now well understood to be a necessary check on
Kings, whom they will probably think it more prudent
to chain and tame, than to exterminate. To attain all
this, however, rivers of blood must yet flow, and years
of desolation pass over ; yet the object is worth rivers
of blood, and years of desolation. For what inheritance
so valuable, can man leave to his posterity ? The spirit
of the Spaniard, and his deadly and eternal hatred to a
Frenchman, give me much confidence that he will never
submit, but finally defeat the atrocious violation of the
laws of God and man, under which he is suffering; and
the wisdom and firmness of the Cortes, afford reason
able hope, that that nation will settle down in a temper
ate representative government, with an executive prop
erly subordinated to that. Portugal, Italy, Prussia,
Germany, Greece, will follow suit. You and I shall
look down from another world on these glorious achieve
ments to man, which will add to the joys even of heaven*

Such are the ulterior tendencies and probable results
of this stupendous act. Enough has already elapsed
to demonstrate, that the author was scarcely more hap
py in originating its principles, than in predicting its
glorious consequences.

The term for which Mr Jefferson had been elected to
Congress, expired on the llth of August, 76; and he
had communicated to the Convention of Virginia, in

102 LIFE OF

June preceding, his intention to decline a re-appoint
ment. But his excuses were overruled by that body,
and he was unanimously re-elected. On receiving intel
ligence of the result, gratifying as it evidently was, he
addressed a second letter to the chairman of the Con
vention, in which he adhered to his original resolution,
as follows :

*I am sorry the situation of my domestic affairs renders
it indispensably necessary, that I should solicit the substi
tution of some other person here, in my room. The deli
cacy of the House will not require me to enter minutely
into the private causes which render this necessary. I
trust they will be satisfied I would not have urged it
again, were it not unavoidable. I shall with cheerful
ness continue in duty here till the expiration of our year,
by which time I hope it will be convenient for my suc
cessor to attend.

He continued in Congress until the 2d of September
following, when his successor having arrived, he resign
ed his seat and returned to Virginia.

Thus closed the extraordinary career of Mr Jefferson
in the Continental Congress. His actual attendance in
that renowned Legislature, had been only about nine
months ; and yet he had succeeded in impressing his
character, in distinct and legible traces, upon the whole.
The result is remarkable when considered in connection
with his immature age. He had at this time attained
only his thirty-third year, and was the youngest man
but one in the session of 76.

We have been restrained by our design, to the capital
and distinguishing points in his course. The minor
features of his service, while engaged in conducting the
general administration, were proportioned to the same
standard; but they are shorn of all interest by the
overshadowing importance of his labors in the cause of
the Revolution. In the multiplied transactions of a
subordinate character which engaged the attention of

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 103

the House, he sustained a corresponding reputation.
To estimate the extent of his labors, it is only necessary
to turn over the journals of Congress. In constituting
the committees of importance it was the policy, in gen
eral, to put Virginia at the head ; and the effect of this
policy was to throw him into the situation of chairman,
unusually often. No member probably served on more
committees, or executed a greater amount of business,
in proportion to his term of service, than he did. The
union of great practical ability, with uncommon theo
retical acuteness, is an anomaly in the constitution of
man. It is proverbial however, that he displayed a
promptitude no less remarkable in the ordinary details
of legislation, than in the high concerns of an abstract
and metaphysical nature, which were committed to him.
The retirement of Mr Jefferson from a stage of ac
tion on which he had performed so much, in the zenith
of human popularity, and at the first crisis of Inde
pendence, may appear unaccountable, with the lights al
ready in the possession of the reader. The motives as
signed by him, seem clearly disproportioned to the act,
reasoning from all analogy applicable to the human cha
racter at large ; and compel us to resort to more com
petent sources of information, for a satisfactory solution
of the mystery. The real and controlling motive of his
resignation, but which his modesty would not permit
him to urge to the Convention, is found inserted among
his private * Memoranda. It is alike curious and hon
orable. He says : The new government (in Virginia)
was now organized ; a meeting of the Legislature was
to be held in October, and I had been elected a mem
ber by my county. / knew that our legislation, under
the regal government, had many very vicious points which
urgently required reformation ; and I thought I could be
of more use in forwarding that work. I therefore retired
from my seat in Congress, &c.

The whole secret of the transaction is here unveiled,

104 LIFE OF

and is singularly in unison with the reigning attribute
of his character. Those who recollect the irrepressible
anxiety which he felt for Virginia, while in the crisis of
her transition from the monarchical to the republican
state, and the severe requisition which he made upon his
own industry to secure the greatest practicable measure
of freedom and liberality there, will be impressed with
the admirable steadiness of purpose which influenced
his present determination. The new government in the
first province of free empire, was now fairly put in mo
tion ; and he felt an invincible desire to participate in
the measures of the first republican Legislature under
it. Every thing, he conceived, depended upon the stamp
of political integrity that should be impressed upon the
new institutions of a State government, which was to
set the example in the career of republican legislation,
and which constituted so influential a member of the
incipient confederacy. The principles of her present
code were incompatible with the enjoyment of any con
siderable benefits under the change of administration,
and required a fundamental revision, and reduction to
a consistent standard. The English common law, with
its odious and despotic refinements of feudal origin, was
in full force ; many of the British statutes, of the most
obnoxious character, still existed ; whilst the Virginian
statutes themselves were scarcely less aristocratic, and
hostile to well-regulated liberty ; presenting together,
an unwieldy and vicious mass of legislation, civil and
religious, which, to the mind of the political reformer,
presented stronger attractions than the scene in which
he had just been distinguished by his labors. To have
descended from an eminence in congress which placed
him near the helm of the Revolution, to the subordinate
station of representative to the municipal assembly, was
an act of magnanimity, of which history furnishes few
examples : but he was impressed with the necessity of

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 105

carrying into action, the sound principles which he had
meditated during the first effort of emancipation ; and
now, he thought was a propitious moment to place
them on a safe foundation.

4 The spirit of the times, he said, may alter, will alter.
Our rulers will become corrupt, our people careless. A
single zealot may become a persecutor, and better
men be his victims. It can never be too often repeated,
that the time for fixing every essential right on a legal
basis, is while our rulers are honest, and ourselves unit
ed. From the conclusion of this war we shall be going
down hill. It will not then be necessary to resort every
moment to the people for support. They will be for
gotten, therefore, and their rights disregarded. They
will forget themselves, but in the sole faculty of making
money, and will never think of uniting to effect a due
respect for their rights. The shackles, therefore, which
shall not be knocked off at the conclusion of this war,
will remain on us long, will be made heavier and
heavier, till our rights shall revive or expire in a con
vulsion.

With the special design, therefore, of heading in per
son the great work of political regeneration, which he
had sketched for his country and for mankind, he early
signified his determination to relinquish his station in
the National Councils ; and was immediately thereupon
elected to a seat in the Legislature of Virginia.

Before following him into that body, however, the
order of time requires us to notice a singular mark
of distinction conferred on him by Congress. He had
been absent from Philadelphia but a few days, before he
received the appointment of Commissioner to France,
with Dr Franklin, to negotiate treaties of alliance and
commerce with that government. Silas Dean, then in
France, acting as agent for procuring military supplies
and for sounding the dispositions of the government
towards us, was joined with them in the commission.
The appointment was made on the last day of Septem-
10

106 LIFE OF

ber, 1776. Greater importance was attached to the
successful issue of this mission, than to any other that
had yet been meditated. The prevailing object of de
claring Independence had been to secure the countenance
and assistance of foreign powers ; and towards France,
whose friendship and co-operation appeared most like
ly to be obtained, the hopes of the country were undi-
videdly directed.

If any thing could mark more unequivocally the re
spect of Congress for the abilities of Mr Jefferson by
this appointment, it was the fact of their having asso
ciated, a young man of thirty-three, with a venerable
philosopher of seventy, then the most distinguished civil
character in America.

But the same reasons which influenced his retirement
from Congress, induced him to decline accepting the
foreign station also, as appears by the following letter
addressed to the President of Congress.

1 Williamsburg, October 11, 1776.

* HONORABLE SIR, Your favor of the 30th, together
with the resolutions of Congress, of the 26th ultimo,
came safe to hand. It would argue great insensibility
in me, could I receive with indifference, so confidential
an appointment from your body. My thanks are a poor
return for the partiality they have been pleased to en
tertain for me. No cares for my own person, nor yet
for my private affairs, would have induced one moment s
hesitation to accept the charge. But circumstances
very peculiar in the situation of my family, such as
neither permit me to leave, nor to carry it, compel me
to ask leave to decline a service so honorable, and, at
the same time, so important to the American cause.
The necessity under which I labor, and the conflict I
have undergone for three days, during which I could not
determine to dismiss your messenger, will, I hope, plead
my pardon with Congress ; and I am sure there are too
many of that body to whom they may with better hopes
confide this charge, to leave them under a moment s
difficulty in making a new choice. I am, sir, with the

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 107

most sincere attachment to your honorable body, and
the great cause they support, their and your most obe
dient, humble servant.

A more adequate and interesting revelation of his
motives than is contained in the above letter, is found
among his private Memoranda. After repeating the
domestic causes already stated, he says : / saw, too, that
the, laboring oar was really at home, where much was to be
done, of the most permanent interest, in new-modelling our
governments, and much to defend our fanes and firesides,
from the desolations of an invading enemy, pressing on
our country in every point. I declined, therefore, and
Dr Lee was appointed in my place.

108 LIFE OF

CHAPTER V.

MR JEFFERSON took his seat in the Legislature of
Virginia, on the 7th of October, 1776, the opening day
of the session. The first object of reform, which ar
rested his attention, was the Judiciary System ; the or
ganization of which, upon the broad basis of reason and
common sense, struck him as a measure of the first
importance. Besides being indispensable to meet the
external revolution of the government, such a scheme of
improvement was eminently calculated to gain popular
favor for the new order of things, which should al
ways be the first object of the reformer.

On the llth of October, therefore, he obtained leave
to bring in a Bill for the establishment of Courts of Jus
tice. The proposition was referred to a committee, of
which he was chairman. He drafted the ordinance ;
submitted it to the committee, by whom it was approv
ed ; and reported it to the House, where, after passing
through the ordinary course, it was adopted with unan
imity.

The system proposed by Mr Jefferson, was simple in
its organization, and highly republican in its spirit. It
is retained essentially unaltered in the existing code of
Virginia. It established the model for succeeding Legis
latures, in different States, as they successively pro
ceeded to the same duty ; and its main features are ob
servable in the Judiciary Systems of all our State go
vernments at the present day.

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 109

It divided the State into counties, and erected three
distinct grades of Courts County, Superior, and Su
preme. The quality and extent of jurisdiction, pre
scribed to each grade, were similar to the prevailing di
visions on that subject in the United States. The trial
by jury was guarded with extreme circumspection. In
all questions of fact and law combined, the reference to
a jury was made imperative in the courts of law ; and
the framer of the bill had designed to make it imperative
also in the court of chancery ; but the provision was
defeated in the House by the introduction of a discre
tionary clause, on motion of Mr Pendleton, a gentleman
of high English prejudices. The consequence has been,
that no suiter will say to his judge, * Sir, I distrust you,
give me a jury, juries are rarely, perhaps never, seen
in that court, but when ordered by the chancellor of
his own accord.

On the following day, October 12, he brought forward
his celebrated bill for the abolition of the Law of En
tails. This was a cardinal measure, and a bold one for
the political semi-barbarism of that age. Nor could a
body of men have been easily selected, upon whose sen-
sibilities the proposition would have grated with more
harshness, than upon the aristocracy of a Virginia As
sembly. The strong lines of discrimination impressed
upon the society of Virginia, during the early stages of
the settlement, are celebrated in history ; nor has the
genius of her republican institutions been successful,
as yet, in obliterating those artificial and dissocial
distinctions, or in extinguishing the high aristocratical
spirit which they engendered. In the earlier times of
the colony, when lands were to be obtained for little or
nothing, certain provident individuals procured large
grants ; and, desirous of founding great families for
themselves, settled them on their descendants in fee tail.
The transmission of these estates from generation to
generation, in the same name, raised up a distinct class
10*

110

LIFE OF

of families, who being privileged by law in the per
petuation of their wealth, were thus formed into a Pa
trician order, distinguished by the splendor and luxury
of their establishments. This order, having in process
of time, engulphed the greater part of the landed pro
perty, and with it, the political power of the province, re
mained stationary, in general, on the grounds of their fore
fathers ; for there was no emigration to the westward in
those days. The Irish, who had gotten possession of
the valley between the Blue-Ridge and the North Moun
tain, formed a barrier over which none ventured to leap ;
and their manners presented no attractions to the opu
lent lowlanders to settle among them.

* In such a state of things, says Mr Jefferson, scarce
ly admitting any change of station, society would settle
itself down into several strata, separated by no marked
lines, but shading off imperceptibly from top to bottom,
nothing disturbing the order of their repose. There
were, then, first aristocrats, composed of the great land
holders who had seated themselves below tide water on
the main rivers, and lived in a style of luxury and ex
travagance, insupportable by the other inhabitants, and
which indeed ended, in several instances, in the ruin of
their own fortunes. Next to these were what may be
called half breeds ; the descendants of the younger sons
and daughters of the aristocrats, who inherited the pride
of their ancestors without their wealth. Then came the
pretenders, men who from vanity or the impulse of grow
ing wealth, or from that enterprize which is natural to
talents, sought to detach themselves from the plebeian
ranks, to which they properly belonged, and imitated at
some distance, the manners and habits of the great.
Next to these, were a solid and independent yeomanry,
looking askance at those above, yet not venturing to jos
tle them. And last and lowest, afccuhtm of beings call
ed overseers, the most abject, degraded, unprincipled
race ; always cap in hand to the dons who employed
them, and furnishing materials for the exercise of their
pride, insolence, and spirit of domination.

THOMAS JEFFERSON. Ill

By birth and fortune, Mr Jefferson belonged to the
aristocracy ; but his intellectual habits made him revolt
at the indoience and voluptuousness which marked the
lives of that order ; and his political principles attached
him, by early and indissoluble sympathies, to the solid
and independent yeomanry.

Those who labor in the earth, he early declared,
are the chosen people of God, if ever he had a chosen
people, whose breasts he has made his peculir deposit
for substantial and genuine virtue. It is the focus in
which he keeps alive that sacred fire, which otherwise
might escape from the face of the earth. Corruption of
morals in the mass of cultivators, is a phenomenon of
which no age nor nation has furnished an example. It
is the mark set on those, who, not looking up to heaven,
to their own soil and industry, as does the husbandman,
for their subsistence, depend for it on the casualties and
caprice of customers. Dependence begets subservience
and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares
fit tools for the designs of ambition. This^ the natural
progress and consequence of the arts, has sometimes,
perhaps, been retarded by accidental circumstances ;
but, generally speaking, the proportion, which the ag
gregate of the other classes of citizens bears, in any
State, to that of its husbandmen, is the proportion of its
unsound to its healthy parts, and is a good enough ba
rometer whereby to measure its degree of corruption.

Impressed with these strong, unsophisticated views, he
beheld with an incessant desire of reformation, the anti-
republican features which characterized the social state
of Virginia. The Law of Entails was the key-stone of
this pernicious superstructure. Besides locking up the
lands of the Commonwealth in the hands of a fixed no
bility, and thereby discouraging immigration, it legiti
mated the mastery of might over right, and in the most
effectual forms. It was a weapon which the law itself
superadded to the multitude of natural means, to assist
the strong in beating down and trampling upon the
weak. It enabled the original and opulent proprietors

112 LIFE OP

of the < Ancient Dominion, or their descendants, to
perpetuate the supremacy of wealth over talents and
virtue, and to entail upon society forever, the most dis
astrous corruptions of monarchy. Creditors were de
frauded of their honest debts ; and bona fide purchasers
were, in many instances, either deprived of their title
altogether, or compelled to resort to courts of justice to
substantiate it against innumerable entails. The aboli
tion of this prerogative, therefore, was rightly deemed
by Mr Jefferson a first measure in republicanizing the
institutions, manners and customs of his country.

* To annul this privilege, says he, 4 and instead of an
aristocracy of wealth, of more harm and danger, than
benefit to society, to make an opening for the aristoc
racy of virtue and talent, which nature has wisely pro
vided for the direction of the interests of society, and
scattered with equal hand through all its conditions, was
deemed essential to a well ordered republic. To effect
it, no violence was necessary, no deprivation of natural
right, but rather an enlargement of it, by a repeal of the
law. For this would authorize the present holder to di
vide the property among his children, equally, as his af
fections were divided; and would place them, by natural
generation, on the level of their fellow citizens.

The repeal was resisted, with desperation, by the
sturdy and inexorable barons of the Legislature. The
opposition was headed by Edmund Pendleton, speaker
of the House, a gentleman of great capacity, but zeal
ously attached to ancient establishments. He had been
under the protection of the lordly John Robinson, the
acknowledged leader of the landed aristocracy for half
a century; and the mantle of his patron had fallen upon
him&elf. His personal influence was great, and his pow
ers as a debater were of a high order. For dexterity
of address, fertility of resource, and parliamentary man
agement, he was without a rival. With such a champi
on, some idea may be formed of the character and force

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 113

of the opposition. But their resistance was unavailing.
Finding they could not overthrow the general principle
of the bill, they took their stand on an amendment which
they proposed instead of absolute abolition, to permit
the tenant in tail to convey in fee simple, if he chose it :
and they were within a few votes of saving so much of
the old law. But after a severe contest, the bill finally
passed for entire abolition ; and thus, to use the language
of the author, was broken up the hereditary and high
handed aristocracy, which, by accumulating immense
masses of property in single lines of family, had divided
our country into two distinct orders, of nobles and ple
beians. The following short preamble introduces the
act.

* Whereas, the perpetuation of property in certain
families, by means of gifts made to them in fee taille, is
contrary to good policy, tends to deceive fair traders,
who give credit on the visible possession of such estates,
discourages the holders thereof from taking care and
improving the same, and sometimes does injury to the
morals of youth, by rendering them independent of, and
disobedient to their parents ; and whereas the former
method of docking such estates taille, by special act of
Assembly, formed for every particular case, employed
very much of the time of the legislature, and the same,
as well as the method of defeating such estates when of
small value, was burthensome to the public, and also to
individuals :

i Be it therefore enacted, <fcc. ,__

The next prominent heresy in the political system of
Virginia, which encountered the glance of the reformer,
was her religious establishment. This institution he
considered one of the most preposterous and deleterious
remnants of the repudiated monarchy ; but his advances
on this subject, in all its breadth and bearings, had left
the rest of mankind, with few exceptions, far in the rear.

The church establishment of Virginia was of the
Episcopal order, coeval with its first colonization, and

114 LIFE OF

in all respects a scion of the parent hierarchy. The first
settlers of the colony were Englishmen, loyal subjects to
their king and church ; and the grant of Sir Walter
Raleigh contained an express proviso, that their laws
should riot be against the true Christian faith, now pro
fessed in the church of England. They emigrated
from the bosom of the mother church, at a point of time
when it was flushed with complete victory over the re
ligious of all other persuasions. Possessed, as they be
came, of the powers of making, administering and ex
ecuting the laws, they showed equal intolerance in this
colony, with their Presbyterian brethren, who had em
igrated to the northern governments. As soon as the
state of the colony admitted, it was divided into parishes,
in each of which was installed a minister of the Angli
can church, endowed with a fixed salary in tobacco, a
glebe house and land, with other appendages. To meet
these expenses, all the inhabitants of the parish were
assessed, whether they were, or were not, members of the
established church. The integrity of the institution was
guarded by the severest penalties against schismatics.
In addition to the common law provisions against heresy,
making it a capital offence punishable by burning, their
own statuary enactments were scarcely less flagitious.
Several acts of the Virginia Assembly had made it penal
in parents to refuse to have their children baptised ; had
prohibited the unlawful assembling of Quakers ; had
made it penal for any master of a vessel to bring a
Quaker into the State ; had ordered those already there,
and such as should come thereafter, to be imprisoned
till they should abjure the country ; prescribed a milder
punishment for the first and second return, but death
for the third ; had inhibited all persons from suffering
their meetings in or near their houses, entertaining them
individually, or disseminating books which supported
their tenets. And so late as 1705, an act of assembly

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 115

was passed declaring, if any person, brought up in the
Christian religion, denied the being of a God, or the
Trinity, or asserted there were more Gods than one, or
denied the Christian religion to be true, or the scriptures
to be of divine authority, he was punishable on the first
offence, by incapacity to hold any office or employment, \
ecclesiastical, civil, or military ; on the second, by dis
ability to sue, to take any gift or legacy, to be guardian, I
executor, or administrator, and by three years imprison
ment without bail.

Such is an epitome of the religious slavery which ex
isted at this time in Virginia ; and if no executions had
taken place, as in New England, it was not owing to the
moderation of the church, or spirit of the legislature,
as may be inferred from the laws themselves ; but to his
torical circumstances which have not been handed down
to us. The convention which sat in May, 76, in their
Declaration of Rights, had indeed proclaimed it to be a
truth, and a natural right, that the exercise of religion
should be free ; * but when they proceeded, says Mr
Jefferson, to form on that declaration, the ordinance
of government, instead of taking up every principle de
clared in the Bill of Rights, and guarding it by legisla
tive sanction, they passed over that which asserted our
religious rights, leaving them as they found them.
The whole catalogue of spiritual oppressions, therefore,
was reserved for himself to wipe away ; to effect which,
was an enterprise of a more desperate character than
any he had ever undertaken. The excitement of the
revolution was a powerful auxiliary to him ; but the
state of the country, in general, exhibited the strange
phenomenon of a people devoting their lives and for
tunes for the recovery of their civil freedom, and yet
clinging to a mental tyranny tenfold more presumptuous
and paralyzing. Other moral causes still more effica
cious, combined with the spirit of the revolution to assist

116 LIFE OF

him in the arduous labor of spiritual disenchantment.
These causes are summarily stated by himself.

1 In process of time, however, other sectarisms were
introduced, chiefly of the Presbyterian family ; and the
established clergy, secure for life in their glebes and sal
aries, adding to these generally, the emoluments of a
classical school, found employment enough in their farms
and school rooms, for the rest of the week, and devoted
Sunday only to the edification of their flock, by service,
and a sermon at their parish church. Their other pas
toral functions were little attended to. Against this in
activity, the zeal and industry of sectarian preachers had
an open and undisputed field ; and by the time of the
revolution, a majority of the inhabitants had become
dissenters from the established church, but were still
obliged to pay contributions to support the pastors of
the minority. This unrighteous compulsion, to maintain
teachers of what they deemed religious errors, was grie
vously felt during the regal government, and without a
hope of relief. But the first republican legislature,
which met in 76, was crowded with petitions to abolish
this spiritual tyranny.

Encouraged by the rising spirit of determination among
the dissenters, and relieved from the complicated re
straints which externally barred all improvement under
the monarchy, he commenced his attack on the then
dominant religion, early in the session to wit, on the
llth of October. This bold movement, supported by
the incessant and well directed appeals of the petition
ers, roused the privileged clergy from their protracted
inertness. Counter memorials, accordingly, poured in
from every quarter, soliciting a continuance of the ec
clesiastical polity upon principles of justice, wisdom and
expediency. They represented that the repeal of the
church establishment would be an ex post facto enact
ment, and a violation of the public faith ; that the Epis
copal clergy had entered upon their endowments with
the plighted obligation of the government to continue

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 117

them therein during life, or good behavior, as a compen
sation for their services ; and that they held them by a
tenure as sacred as that by which any man has secured
to him his private property ; that the Episcopalians did
not mean to encroach on the religious rights of any sect
of men, yet they conceived the existing institution, con
secrated by the practice of so many years, as eminently
conducive to the peace and happiness of the State ; that
much confusion, and probably civil commotions would
attend the proposed change ; and finally, that an appeal
should be made for the decision of so important a ques
tion, to the sentiments and wishes of the people at large.
The petitions, on the other hand, expatiated upon the
theme of liberty ; and blended with unanswerable de
monstrations of right and reason, the expostulations of
bereaved freemen.

The subject was referred to the committee of the
whole house on the state of the country, with the multi
tude of appertaining memorials arid remonstrances.
These, says Mr Jefferson in 1820, brought on the
severest contests in which I have ever been engaged.
Our great opponents were Mr Pendleton and Robert
Carter Nicholas; honest men, but zealous churchmen.
The majority of the legislature, unfortunately, were of
the same stamp, which forced on Mr Jefferson an alter
ation in the mode of attack. Finding he could not main
tain the ground on which he set out, he varied his po
sition from absolute to partial abolition ; and after vehe
ment contests in the committee, almost daily, from the
llth of October to the 5th of December, he prevailed
so far only as to repeal the laws which rendered the
maintenance of any religious opinions criminal, the for
bearance of repairing to church, or the exercise of any
mode of worship. By the same act also, he secured a
provision exempting dissenters from contributions to the
support of the established church, and suspending until
the next session only, levies on the members of the
11

118

LIFE OF

church for the salaries of their own incumbents. But
his opponents inserted a declaratory saving, that religious
assemblies ought to be regulated, and that provision
ought to be made for continuing the succession of the
clergy and superintending their conduct. They also
succeeded in incorporating an express reservation of the
ultimate question, Whether a general assessment
should not be established by law on every one, to support
the pastor of his choice ; or whether all should be left
to free and voluntary contributions.

This question, the last prop of the tottering hierarchy,
reduced the struggle to one of pure principle. The par
ticular object of the dissenters being secured, they de
serted the volunteer champion of their cause, and went
over in a body to the advocates of a general assessment.
This step showed them incapable of religious liberty up
on an expansive scale, or broader than their own inter
ests as schismatics. The defection of the dissenters,
painful as it was, only stimulated his desire for total ab
olition, as it developed more palpably, the evidences of
its necessity. He remained unshaken at his post ; and
brought on the reserved question, at every session for
three years afterwards, during which time, he could only
obtain a suspension of the levies from year to year, until
the session of 79 when by his unwearied exertions, the
question was carried definitively against a general as
sessment, and the establishment of the Anglican church
entirely overthrown.

Thus was the cause of religious liberty astonishingly
^advanced. But still the work was incomplete. Statu
tory oppressions were disannulled ; but those which
existed at the common law, continued in force ; nor were
the advantages already gained, secured by any positive
legislative sanction. The proceedings hitherto upon the
subject, were of a belligerent character ; and although
crowned with success, were regarded by the mover in
great part, as an experiment upon public opinion, l in-

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 119

dicative, as he expressed it, of the general pulse of re
formation. The barrier subsequently erected, in perpetu
al security of the rights of which he procured the recog
nition, forms the conclusion of this impressive drama.
We allude to his celebrated Religious Freedom Bill,
universally regarded as one of the chief bulwarks of hu
man rights. As it constitutes a part of his general code
of revisal, the merits of this bill will be more particular
ly considered, when we come to develope the features of
that great and useful labor.

The next prominent corruption of the monarchy,
which Mr Jefferson regarded as fatally inconsistent with
the republican change, was the existence and the practice
of slavery. We have already seen him on two occasions,
exerting his talents, and raising his voice, in awful ad
monition, against the continuance of this atrocious and
wide spread injustice. The result of his former attempt
in the Legislature, which was based upon manumission,
or the permission to emancipate, had convinced him of
the utter impracticability of maintaining that ground ;
and of the necessity of attacking the evil in such a mode
as should militate less diametrically against the interests
and prejudices of the reigning population. He took his
stand, therefore, upon a proposition to abolish the exe
crable commerce in slaves ; which by stopping importa
tion, would arrest the increase of the evil, and diminish
the obstacles to eventual eradication. But the business
of the war pressing heavily upon the Legislature, the sub
ject was not acted upon definitively, until the session of
78, when the bill was carried without opposition, and
the slave trade triumphantly abolished in Virginia. The
importance of this measure, and the grounds upon which
the author may contest the merit of priority with the
world, in the benevolent enterprise of African emanci
pation, will be more particularly explained at that period
of his history.

Such were some of the efforts in legislation, with which

120 LIFE OP

Mr Jefferson commenced the process of republicanizing
the institutions of America, in the first State legislature
that was organized after the dissolution of the monarchy.
They were all, it will be perceived, of an elementary
character, and highly democratic in their object and ten
dency. But still, the interesting work was only begun.
The plan originally proposed to himself on determining
to leave the floor of Congress, comprehended the re
casting into other republican forms, the anciently estab
lished and generally received basis of civil government.

So far, says he, in his brief notes of these transactions,
we were proceeding in the details of reformation only ;
selecting points of legislation, prominent in character
and principle, urgent, and indicative of the strength of
the general pulse of reformation. When 1 left congress
in 76, it was in the persuasion, that our whole code
must be reviewed, adapted to our republican form of
government; and now, that we had no negatives of
councils, governors and kings to restrain us from doing
right, that it should be corrected in all its parts, with a
single eye to reason and the good of those for whose
government it was framed.

In pursuance of his original design, therefore, he now
brought forward a proposition which stands recorded in
the statute books of Virginia, in the following terms.

Whereas, on the late change which hath of neces
sity been introduced into the form of government in
this country, it is become also necessary to make cor
responding changes in the laws heretofore in force ;
many of which are inapplicable to the powers of go
vernment as now organized, others are founded on prin
ciples heterogeneous to the republican spirit ; others,
which long before such change, had been oppressive to
the people, could yet never be repealed while the regal
power continued ; and others, having taken their origin
while our ancestors remained in Britain, are not so well
adapted to our present circumstances of time and place ;
and it is also necessary to introduce certain other laws,
which, though proved by the experience of other States

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 121

to be friendly to liberty and the rights of mankind, we
have not heretofore been permitted to adopt ; and where
as a work of such magnitude, labor, and difficulty, may
not be effected during the short and busy term of a ses
sion of assembly :

4 Be it therefore enacted, by the General Assembly of
the Commonwealth of Virginia, and it is hereby enacted
by the authority of the same, That a committee, to
consist of five persons, shall be appointed by joint bal
lot of both houses, (three of whom to be a quorum,)
who shall have full power and authority to revise, alter,
amend, repeal, or introduce all or any of the said laws,
to form the same into bills, and report them to the next
meeting of the General Assembly. 1

The resolution was passed on the 24th of October,
76, and on the 5th of November, Mr Jefferson, as
chairman, was associated in a commission with Edmund
Pendleton, George Wythe, George Mason and Thomas
Ludwell Lee, to execute the contemplated revisal. The
commissioners were elected by a joint ballot of both
houses ; and the choice resulted in the selection of an
assemblage of characters, which united the first order
of capacity, intelligence, and legal research, to the
rankest revolutionary principles. Suitable provisions
were added, to render the execution of a work of such
magnitude and difficulty, as easy and expeditious as
practicable ; and such was the importance attached to
the result of their labors, that the assembly excused
Mr Wythe from his attendance in Congress, to secure
his undivided co-operation. Having accepted the ar
duous charge, the committee of revisors immediately
came to an agreement to meet at Fredericksburg, in
January ensuing, to settle the plan of operation and to
distribute the work. The foundation was thus laid for
the great republican lawgiver to pursue his system of re
form, so auspiciously commenced, in all the latitude of
his long cherished and well expressed purpose, with
a single eye to reason, and the good of mankind.
11*

122

LIFE OF

In the midst of this brisk action of the republican ad
ministration, an irregularity occurred which, had it been
permitted to prevail, would have been a standing evi
dence of the incapacity of man for self-government.
The autumn of 76, was one of the most distressing
periods of the revolution. The courage of the country
seemed to be breaking down. The fortitude of the
Virginia legislature fell for a season ; and in a moment
of terror and despondency, the frantic project was se
riously meditated of creating a Dictator, invested with
every power, legislative, executive and judiciary, civil
and military, of life and of death. The scheme origi
nated with an anti-republican portion of the House, and
excited a tempest of altercation, threatening a violent
dissolution. A discordancy of political views was im
mediately developed, which before was thought impossi
ble in that legislature. The republican and the mo
narchist stood unveiled, as if by the power of magic,
and such was the spirit of mutual hostility, that they
walked the streets on different sides. It was on this
occasion, that Col. Archibald Cary, mover of the celebra-
tated resolutions of Independence, and then Speaker of
the Senate, manifested a patriotic sternness which should
place him in history by the side of Cato and Brutus.*
Meeting Col. Syme, the step-brother of Patrick Henry,
in the lobby of the House during the agitation, he ac
costed him with great fierceness, in the following terms :
I am told that your brother wishes to be dictator :
tell him from me, that the day of his appointment, shall
be the day of his death, for he shall feel my dagger
in his heart, before the sun set of that day. t The emo
tions excited in the mind of Mr Jefferson, who was

* Girardin, p. 192.

t Although it was generally supposed that Mr Henry, then go
vernor of the State, was the person in view for the dictatorship,
yet there is no evidence that he was implicated in the scheme him
self, or had any knowledge of it.

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 123

eminently instrumental in crushing the parricidal pro
ject, may be inferred from that nervous and able develop
ment of its nature and tendency, which appeared soon
after this event. The following is an extract.

One, who entered into this contest, from a pure love
of liberty, and a sense of injured rights, who determined
to make every sacrifice, and to meet every danger, for
the re-establishment of those rights, on a firm basis, who
did not mean to expend his blood and substance, for the
wretched purpose of changing this master for that, but
to place the powers of governing him, in a plurality of
hands of his own choice, so that the corrupt will of no
one man, might in future oppress him, must stand con
founded and dismayed, when he is told, that a consider
able portion of that plurality, had meditated the surren
der of them, into a single hand, and in lieu of a limited
monarchy, to deliver him over .to a despotic one! How
must he find his efforts and sacrifices abused and baffled,
if he may still, by a single vote, be laid prostrate at the
feet of one man 1 In God s name, from whence have
they derived this power ? Is it from our ancient laws 1
None such can be produced. Is it from any principle
in our new constitution, expressed or implied ? Every
lineament of that, expressed or implied, is in full oppo
sition to it. Its fundamental principle is, that the State
shall be governed as a commonwealth. It provides a
republican organization, proscribes under the name of
prerogative, the exercise of all powers undefined by the
laws ; places on this basis, the whole system of our laws ;
and by consolidating them together, chooses that they
should be left to stand or fall together, never providing
for any circumstances, nor admitting that such could
arise, wherein either should be suspended ; no, not for a
moment. Our ancient laws expressly declare, that those
who are but delegates themselves, shall not delegate to
others, powers which require judgment and integrity in
their exercise. Or was this proposition moved, on a sup
posed right in the movers of abandoning their posts in a
moment of distress 1 The same laws forbid the aban
donment of that post, even on ordinary occasions ; and

124 LIFE OF

much more a transfer of their powers into other hands,
and other forms, without consulting the people. They
never admit the idea, that these, like sheep or cattle,
may be given from hand to hand, without an appeal to
their own will. Was it from the necessity of the case ?
Necessities which dissolve a government, do not convey
its authority to an oligarchy or a monarchy. They
throw back, into the hands of the people, the powers
they had delegated, and leave them as individuals to shift
for themselves. A leader may offer, but not impose
himself, nor be imposed on them. Much less can their
necks be submitted to his sword, their breath to be held
at his will, or caprice. The necessity which should op
erate these tremendous effects, should at least be palpa
ble and irresistible. * * * In this State alone, did
there exist so little virtue, that fear was to be fixed in
the hearts of the people, to become the motive of their
exertions, and the principle of their government 1 The
very thought alone, was treason against the people ; was
treason against mankind in general ; riveting for ever
the chains which bow down their necks, by giving to
their oppressors a proof, which they would have trump
eted through the universe, of the imbecility of republi
can government, in times of pressing danger, to shield
them from harm. Those who assume the right of giv
ing away the reins of government in any case, must be
sure that the herd, whom they hand on to the rods and
hatchet of the dictator, will lay their heads on the block,
when he shall nod to them. But if our assemblies sup
posed such a resignation in the people, I hope they mis
took their character. I am of opinion, that the govern
ment, instead of being braced and invigorated for great
er exertions, under their difficulties, w r ould have been
thrown back upon the bungling machinery of county
committees for administration, till a convention could
have been called, and its wheels again set into regular mo
tion. What a cruel moment was this, for creating such
an embarrassment, for putting to the proof, the attach
ment of our countrymen to republican government?

On the 13th of January, 1777, the committee appoint
ed to revise the laws, assembled at Fredericksburg to

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 125

settle the general principles of execution, and to dis
tribute the labor. In relation to the first business of the
consultation, the primary question was, * whether they
should propose to abolish the whole existing system of
laws, and prepare a new and complete Institute, or pre
serve the general system, and only modify it to the pre
sent state of things. Mr Pendleton, contrary to his
usual disposition in favor of ancient things, was for the
former proposition, in -which he was joined by Mr Lee.
To this it was objected by Mr Jefferson, that to abro
gate the whole system would be a bold measure, and
probably far beyond the views of the legislature ; that they
had been in the practice of revising from time to time, the
laws of the colony, omitting the expired, the repealed,
and the obsolete, amending only those retained, and that
they probably now intended to do the same, only inclu
ding the British statutes as well as our own ; that to
compose a new institute, like those of Justinian and
Bracton, or that of Blackstone, which was the model
proposed by Mr Pendleton, would be an arduous under
taking, of vast research, of great consideration and
judgment ; and when reduced to a text, from the imper
fection of human language would become a subject of
question and chicanery, until settled by repeated adjudi
cations; that this would involve us for ages in litigation,
and render property uncertain, until like the statutes of
old, every word had been tried and settled by numerous
decisions, and by new volumes of reports and commen
taries ; and, to be systematical, must be the work of one
hand. This last was the opinion also of Mr Wythe
and Mr Mason, and was consequently adopted as the
rule. They then proceeded to the distribution of the la
bor; upon which, Mr Mason excused himself, as, being
no lawyer, he felt himself unqualified to participate in
the execution of the work. Mr Lee excused himself
on the same ground. The whole undertaking conse
quently, devolved on Mr Jefferson, Mr Pendieton, and

126 LIFE OF

Mr "Wythe, who divided it among themselves in the fol
lowing manner: The whole common law, and the
statutes to the 4th James I when their separate leg
islature was established were assigned to Mr Jeffer
son ; the British statutes from that period to the present
day, to Mr Wythe ; and the Virginia laws to Mr Pen-
dleton. %

As the law of descents and the criminal law fell
within the portion assigned to Mr Jefferson, in both of
which he designed to introduce certain fundamental
changes, he submitted his intentions to the committee for
their approbation. First, with respect to descents, he
proposed to abolish the law of primogeniture, and to
1 make real estate heritable in equal partition to the next
jof kin, as personal property was, by the statute of dis
tribution. Mr Pen die ton objected to the plan, and in
sisted upon preserving the right of primogeniture ; but
finding he could not maintain the whole, he proposed to
give a double portion to the elder son. In reply, Mr
Jefferson observed, that if the elder son could eat
twice as much, or do double work, it might be a natural
evidence of his right to a double portion ; but being on
a par, in his powers and wants, with his brothers and
sisters, he should be on a par also in the partition of the
patrimony. The argument was conclusive; and the
other members of the committee concurring with him,
the principle was adopted.

On the subject of the criminal law he proposed as a
fundamental rule, that the punishment of death should
be abolished in all cases, except for treason and murder.
The humanity of this proposition is illustrated by the
fact, that at this time the penal code of Great Britain
comprehended more than two hundred offences, besides
treason and murder, punishable by hanging ; many of
which were of so venial a nature as scarcely to deserve
punishment. The innovation recommended would sweep
from the parent code all its cruel and sanguinary fea-

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 127

tures, without impairing its energy, as modern experi
ence has proved, and present an example to mankind of
wise and philanthropic legislation, which of itself would
be enough to immortalize the revolution. The propo
sition was approved by the committee ; and for all felo
nies under treason and murder, it was agreed to substitute
in the room of capital punishment, hard labor in the pub
lic works, and in some cases the lex talionis^ or law of re
taliation. With the last mentioned substitute, Mr Jeffer
son was dissatisfied, but acquiesced in the decision of the
board. * How this revolting principle, says he, came
to obtain our approbation, I do not remember. There
remained, indeed, in our laws, a vestige of it, in a single
case of a slave. It was the English law, in the time of
the Anglo-Saxons, copied probably from the Hebrew law
of "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," and it
was the law of several ancient people ; but the modern
mind had left it far in the rear of its advances. Having
decided upon these general principles, as the basis of re
vision, they repaired to their respective abodes to accom
plish the magnificent design.

During the years 1777 and 8, the anxieties and agita
tions of the war weighed so heavily and constantly upon
the legislature, that little attention could be spared to
advancing the progress of political reform. Mr Jefferson
continued a member, but in obedience to more pressing
engagements, suspended in great part the ruling purpose
of his mind, and buried himself in the external concerns
of revolution. In all the practical details of legislation
he contributed his full quota of service ; but they are too
voluminous for incorporation into this work. Not a mo
ment was passed unemployed. Every interval which
could be safely spared from his duties in the legislature,
was devoted to the preparation of the revised code of
Virginia, or to a vigilant circumspection of the national
affairs.

The following letter to Dr Franklin, in Paris, evinces

128 LIFE OF

the satisfaction with which he contemplated the esta
blishment of republicanism in his native State, as well
as the anxiety and zeal which he carried into every de
partment of the public service. It is the fourth in date
of his published correspondence.

* Virginia, August 13, 1777.

HONORABLE SIR, I forbear to write you news, as
the time of Mr Shore s departure being uncertain, it
might be old before you receive it, and he can, in per
son, possess you of all we have. With respect to the
State of Virginia, in particular, the people seem to have
laid aside the monarchical, and taken up the republican
government, with as much ease as would have attended
their throwing off an old, and putting on a new suit of
clothes. Not a single throe has attended this important
transformation. A half dozen aristocratical gentlemen,
agonizing under the loss of pre-eminence, have some
times ventured their sarcasms on our political metamor
phosis. They have been thought fitter objects of pity
than of punishment. We are at present in the complete
and quiet exercise of well organized government, saye
only that our courts of justice do not open till the fall.
I think nothing can bring the security of our continent
and its cause into danger, if we can support the credit
of our paper. To do that, I apprehend one or two steps
must be taken. Either to procure free trade by alliance
with some naval power able to protect it ; or, if we find
there is no prospect of that, to shut our ports totally to
all the world, and turn our colonies into manufactories.
The former would be most eligible, because most con
formable to the habits and wishes of our people. Were
the British court to return to their senses in time to
seize the little advantage which still remains within their
reach from this quarter, I judge that, on acknowledging
our absolute independence and sovereignty, a commer
cial treaty beneficial to them, and perhaps even a league
of mutual offence and defence, might, not seeing the
expense or consequences of such a measure, be approved
by our people, if nothing in the mean time, done on
your part, should prevent it. But they will continue to
grasp at their desperate sovereignty, till every benefit

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 129

short of that is forever out of their reach. I wish my
domestic situation had rendered it possible for me to
join you in the very honorable charge confided to you.
Residence in a polite court, society of literati of the
first order, a just cause and an approving God, will add
length to a life for which all men pray, and none more
than your most obedient and humble servant.

In addition to the military operations which engaged
the attention of the legislature, two important transac
tions of a civil character, in both of which Mr Jefferson
took the lead, distinguished the autumnal session of
1777. These were, the ratification of the Articles of
Confederation and Perpetual Union, proposed by Con
gress on the 17th of November, 76 ; and the adoption
of a plan to dispose of the unappropriated lands of Vir
ginia on the western waters, the avails of which were to
be applied to the creation of a sinking fund in aid of
the taxes, for discharging the public debt. A loan office
was established, in which the waste lands were register
ed, and sold from time to time on moderate terms, for
the benefit of the State. In the then posture of affairs
no measure could have been proposed, more directly and
widely beneficial ; it opened an incalculable resource for
the support of the public credit.

The May session of 1778, also, notwithstanding the
exigencies of the war, was distinguished by a civil trans
action, which is intimately connected with the reputation
of Mr Jefferson, and the honor of our country, name
ly the abolition of the Slave Trade. The bill for this
purpose was introduced by him in October 76, but was
not acted upon finally until the present session, when a
more particular illustration of its merits was promised,
by a historical comparison of the efforts of other nations.
The British empire has claimed the honor of having set
the example of the renunciation of this diabolical traf
fic ; and Lord Castlereagh declared in the House of
Commons, on the 9th of February, 1818, that on the
12

130 LIFE OP

subject of making the slave trade punishable by law,
Great Britain had led the way. A slight recurrence to
dates will unfold the historical truth on this point.

In the year 1791, Mr Wilberforce, who is considered
the father of African abolition in England, made his first
grand motion to that effect in the house of Commons.
After a vehement and protracted debate, in the course
of which Mr Fox said, that * if the house did not, by
their vote, mark to all mankind their abhorrence of a
practice so savage, so enormous, so repugnant to all
laws, human and divine, they would consign their char
acter to eternal infamy, the motion was lost by a con
siderable majority. The ensuing year, he renewed his
proposition with unabated ardor, and again it was reject
ed by the house. They nevertheless manifested some
relaxation in their repugnance to the general principle,
by voting a gradual abolition, the same year ; but the
House of Lords refused to concur. The same vote was
again carried in 1794, in commons, by a very thin
house ; but lost with the peers, by a majority of forty-
five to four. Similar results attended the indefatigable
exertions of the abolitionists, for fourteen years ; and it
was not until the 25th of March, 1807, that England
consented to renounce the slave trade, by a law which
enacted that no vessels should clear out for slaves from
any port within the British dominions after the 1st of
May, 1807 ; and that no slave should be landed in the
colonies after the first of March, 1808. On the 16th
of March, 1792, Denmark promulgated a law, which
interdicted the slave trade on the part of Danish sub
jects after the commencement of the year 1803 ; and
which prescribed that all importations of slaves into the
Danish dominions should cease at the same period.
Sweden, who had never authorized the traffic, consent
ed to its prohibition in 1813 ; and the King of the Neth
erlands in 1814. In France, Bonaparte interdicted it
immediately on his return from Elba, in 1815. In 1816,

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 131

Spain stipulated in a treaty with England, to renounce
the trade entirely after the 30th of March, 1820, in con
sideration of the sum of four hundred thousand pounds
sterling. About the same time also, a treaty was con
cluded by the same power with Portugal, in which she
required the period of eight years to complete the work
of abolition, together with certain material changes in
the commercial relations of the two countries.*

From the foregoing statement, it appears, that the
honor of having set the example in the magnanimous
work of African abolition, belongs clearly and absolute
ly to America. That Virginia was the first sovereign j
and independent State, herself a slave-holding commu
nity, which renounced the nefarious commerce ; that she \
preceded Great Britain twenty-nine years, and the other \
principal slave-dealing powers in Europe, except Den
mark, more than thirty-five years ; and that among the I
multitude of statesmen and philanthropists, whose prais
es have been deservedly emblazoned for their splendid
successes in this species of legislation, the merit of pri
ority and of self-denying patriotism, attaches incontesti-
bly to Mr Jefferson. The bill which he submitted to
the legislature, and which finally received their sanc
tion, prohibited under heavy penalties, the introduction
of any. slave into Virginia, by land or by water; and de
clared that every slave imported contrary thereto, should
be immediately free ; excepting such as might belong
to persons emigrating from the other States, or be claim
ed by discount, devise, or marriage, or be at that time
the actual property of any citizen of the commonwealth
residing in any other of the United States, or belong to
travellers making a transient stay and carrying their
slaves away with them. The circumstance ought not
to be overlooked, that this important triumph was achiev
ed amid the turbulence and anxiety of revolution ; thus

* Walsh s Appeal, pp. 320 364.

132 LIFE OF

exhibiting the sublime spectacle of a people legislating
for the liberties of another and distant continent, before
the recovery of their own. The example was followed
by Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode
Island, in the years 1780, 87, 88 ; and in 1794 the Con
gress of the United States interdicted the trade from all
the ports of the Union, under severe penalties. The
cause of emancipation is a very different subject. The
opinions and a part of the official labors of Mr Jeffer
son upon that point, have already appeared, or will be
seen in due time.

In the month of February, 1779, the committee of
revisors, having completed their respective tasks, con
vened at Williamsburg to review, approve, and consoli
date them into one report. They came together day
after day, and examined critically their several parts,
scrutinizing and amending until they had agreed on the
whole. They had, in this work, embodied all the com
mon law which it was thought necessary to alter, all
the British statutes from Magna Charta to the present
day, and all the laws of Virginia from the establishment
of their separate legislature to the present time, which
they thought should be retained, within the compass of
one hundred and twenty-six bills, making a printed folio
of ninety pages only. A monument of codification upon
the republican model, almost incredible at that period !
The whole of this labor, the major part of which fell to
Mr Jefferson, was accomplished at intervals, amidst the
occupations and anxieties of the times, within the brief
space of two years.

In the execution of his part, Mr Jefferson observed a
rule in relation to style, which may appear rather odd to
the modern draughtsman. In reforming the ancient stat
utes he preserved the diction of the text ; and in all new
draughts he avoided the introduction of modern techni
calities, and adopted the sample of antiquity ; which,
from its greater simplicity, would allow less scope for

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 133

the chicanery of the lawyers, and remove from among
the people numberless liabilities to litigation. Against
the labored phraseology of modern statutes, he has en
tered an amusing protest. Their verbosity, says he,
8 their endless tautologies, their involutions of case with
in case, and parenthesis within parenthesis, and their
multiplied efforts at certainty, by saids and aforesaids,
by ors and by ands, to make them more plain, have ren
dered them more perplexed and incomprehensible, not
only to common readers, but to the lawyers themselves.

12*

134 LIFE OF

CHAPTER VI.

ON the 18th of June, 1779, the committee of revi-
sors communicated their report to the general assem
bly, accompanied by a letter to the speaker, signed by
Mr Jefferson and Mr Wythe, and authorized by Mr
Pendleton.

The revised code was not enacted in a mass, as was
contemplated. The minds of the legislature were not
prepared for so extensive a transition at once, and the
violence of the times afforded little leisure for metaphy
sical discussion. Some bills were taken out occasion
ally, from time to time, and passed ; but the main body
of the work was not entered upon until after the general
peace, in 1785; when, says Mr Jefferson, by the un
wearied exertions of Mr Madison, in opposition to the
endless quibbles, chicaneries, perversions, vexations, and
delays of lawyers and demi-lawyers, most of the bills
were passed by the legislature, with little alteration.
The distinguished cotemporary, who is represented as
having had so important an agency in carrying this code
into operation, has added verbal testimony of the un
common estimate which he put upon its merits. It has,
says he, been a mine of legislative wealth, and a model
of statutory composition, containing not a single super
fluous word, and preferring always words and phrases of
a meaning fixed as much as possible by oracular trea
tises, or solemn adjudications. *

* Letter to S. H. Smith, 1827.

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 135

In preparing this work, Mr Jefferson improved the
opportunity to push his favorite system of reform into
every branch of administration. The principal innova
tions which he made upon the established order of things,
were the following :

1. The Repeal of the Law of Entails, which, though
separately enacted at the first republican session, he in
corporated into the Revised Code.

2. The Abrogation of the right of Primogeniture, and
the equal division of inheritances among all the children,
or other representatives in equal degree.

3. The Assertion of the right of Expatriation, or a
republican definition of the rules whereby aliens may be
come citizens, and citizens make themselves aliens.

4. The Establishment of Religious Freedom upon the
broadest foundation.

5. The Emancipation of all Slaves born after the pas
sage of the act, and deportation at a proper age not
carried into effect.

6. The Abolition of Capital Punishment in all cases,
except those of treason and murder ; and the gradua
tion of punishments to crimes throughout, upon the prin
ciples of reason and humanity enacted with amend
ments.

7. The Establishment of a systematical plan of Gen
eral Education, reaching all classes of citizens and adapt
ed to every grade of capacity not carried into effect.

The first of these prominent features of the revisal,
has already been considered at sufficient length.

The second in the catalogue, holds an eminent rank
among the ancient and venerable foundations of repub
licanism. It overturned one of the most arbitrary and
unrighteous, among the multiplied institutions, which
have been permitted to evict the laws of God and the
order of nature from the social systems of mankind.
The aristocracy of Virginia opposed the innovation with
the usual pertinacity which marked their adherence to

136

LIFE OF

the ancient privileges of the order ; but the bill was
finally carried, in 1785, and forms the present law of
descents in that commonwealth.

The law on the subject of expatriation, established
the republican doctrine on the much controverted prin
ciple of revolution. The opinions of the author in ref
erence to this question, with the singular discrepancy
between them and those of his leading compatriots, have
been illustrated in a preceding chapter, by an appeal
to the written testimony of that period. Heterodox and
presumptuous as his rights of colonization were deemed
by the politicians of the first stages of the revolution,
the public mind had now approached so nearly to the
same point, as to authorize the attempt to establish them
upon a legal basis. The bill for this purpose was taken
up separately, and carried, on the 26th of June, 79,
principally through the exertions of George Mason, into
whose hands the author had committed it, on his retiring
from the legislature. After stating the conditions of
naturalization, and declaring who shall be deemed citi
zens and who aliens, on terms extremely liberal and
democratic, the act goes on to prescribe : And in order
to preserve to the citizens of this commonwealth that
natural right, which all men have, of relinquishing the
country in which birth or other accident may have thrown
them, and seeking subsistence and happiness whereso
ever they may be able, or may hope to find them ; and
to declare, unequivocally, what circumstances shall be
deemed evidence of an intention in any citizen to exer
cise that right : It is enacted and declared, &c. Hav
ing defined the necessary circumstances of evidence and
the mode of proceeding thereon, the act concludes by
giving to all free white inhabitants of other States, ex
cept paupers and fugitives from justice, the same rights,
privileges and immunities, as belong to the free citizens
of the Commonwealth, and the liberty of free ingress
and egress to and from the same ; reserving, however,

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 137

the right and authority of retaining persons guilty, or
charged with the commission of any high crime or mis
demeanor in another State, and of delivering them over
to the authorities of the State from which they fled, upon
demand of the governor or executive power of such
State. Speaking of this act, in the continuation of
Burk s History of Virginia, it is observed :

* Its operation has been superseded by subsequent in
stitutions ; but that philanthropy which opened, in Vir
ginia, an asylum to individuals of any nation not at open
war with America, upon their removing to the State to
reside, arid taking an oath of fidelity ; and that respect
for the natural and social rights of men, which lays no
restraints whatever on expatriation, and claims the al
legiance of citizens so long only as they are willing to
retain that character, cannot be forgotten. The legis
lators of Virginia well knew, that the strongest hold of
a government on its citizens, is that affection which ra
tional liberty, mild laws, and protecting institutions nev
er fail to produce ; especially, when physical advantages
march in front with political blessings, and industry and
worth are perennial sources of comfort and respecta
bility.

The act for the establishment of Religious Freedom
is perhaps the most interesting feature in the revised
code. With the exception of the Declaration of Inde
pendence, it is the most celebrated of the author s pro-j
ductions, and the one to which he recurred with the;
highest pride and satisfaction. The preamble which
ushers in the act, designates, with peculiar emphasis,
the premises upon which the proposition was found
ed. The following is the preamble, with the accom
panying act.

* Whereas Almighty God hath created the mind free ;
that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments
or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to be
get habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a depart
ure from the plan of the Holy Author of our religion,

138 LIFE OF

who being Lord both of body and mind, yet chose not
to propagate it by coercions on either, as was in his Al
mighty power to do ; that the impious presumption of
legislators and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who,
being themselves but fallible and uninspired men, have
assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up
their own opinions and modes of thinking, as the only
true and infallible, and as such, endeavoring to impose
them on others, hath established and maintained false
religions over the greatest part of the world, and through
all time ; that to compel a man to furnish contributions
of money for the propagation of opinions which he dis
believes, is sinful and tyrannical ; that even the forcing
him to support this or that teacher of his own religious
persuasion, is depriving him of the comfortable liberty
of giving his contributions to the particular pastor, whose
morals he would make his pattern, and whose powers
he feels most persuasive to righteousness, and is with
drawing from the ministry those temporary rewards,
which, proceeding from an approbation of their personal
conduct, are an additional incitement to earnest and un
remitting labors for the instruction of mankind ; that
our civil rights have no dependence upon our religious
opinions, any more than our opinions in physics or ge
ometry ; that therefore the proscribing any citizen as
unworthy the public confidence, by laying upon him an
incapacity of being called to offices of trust and emolu
ment, unless he profess or renounce this or that religious
opinion, is depriving him injuriously of those privileges
and advantages, to which in common with his fellow cit
izens he has a natural right ; that it tends only to cor
rupt the principles of that religion it is meant to en
courage, by bribing with a monopoly of worldly honors
and emoluments, those who will externally profess and
conform to it ; yet though indeed these are criminal who
do not withstand such temptation, yet neither are those
innocent who lay the bait in their way ; that to suffer
the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into the field
of opinion, and to restrain the profession or propagation
of principles on supposition of their ill tendency, is a
dangerous fallacy, which at once destroys all religious
liberty, because he being of course judge of that ten-

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 139

dency will make his opinions the rule of judgment, and
approve or condemn the sentiments of others only as they
shall square with or differ from his own ; that it is time
enough for the rightful purposes of civil government,
for its officers to interfere when principles break out into
overt acts against peace and good order; and finally,
that truth is great and will prevail if left to herself, that
she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and
has nothing to fear from the conflict, unless by human
interposition disarmed of her natural weapons, free ar
gument and debate, errors ceasing to be dangerous when
it is permitted freely to contradict them :

1 Be it enacted by the general assembly, That no man
shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious
worship, place, or ministry, whatsoever, nor shall be en
forced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or
goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his re
ligious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free
to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinion
in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise
diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.

* And though we well know that this assembly, elected
by the people for the ordinary purposes of legislation
only, have no power to restrain the acts of successive
assemblies, constituted with powers equal to our own,
and that therefore to declare this act to be irrevocable
would be of no effect in law ; yet we are free to declare,
and do declare, that the rights hereby asserted are of
the natural rights of mankind, and that if any act should
be hereafter passed to repeal the present, or to narrow
its operation, such act will be an infringement of nat
ural right.

The above is the form in which it received the sanc
tion of the legislature, and varies somewhat from the
original draught. The variations, says the compiler
of the Virginia statutes, rendered the style less elegant,
though they did not materially affect the sense. The
bill was not acted upon until the year 1785, nor carried
then but with considerable difficulty.

I had drawn it, says the author, in all the latitude

140 LIFE OF

of reason and right. It still met with opposition ; but
with some mutilations in the preamble, it was finally
passed ; and a singular proposition proved that its pro
tection of opinion was meant to be universal. Where the
preamble declares that coercion is a departure from the
plan of the Holy Author of our religion, an amendment
was proposed, by inserting the words "Jesus Christ,"
so that it should read, " a departure from the plan of
Jesus Christ-, the Holy Author of our religion ;" the in
sertion was rejected by a great majority, in proof that
they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its pro
tection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Ma
hometan, the Hindoo, and Infidel of every denomination.

This act has been the standing model of legislation
for the security of religious freedom in all parts of the
Union from that day to the present ; and there is not, we
believe, a State, which has legislated at all upon the subject,
that has not incorporated, either in its constitution or its
statutory code, the substance of its provisions, and in
some instances, its phraseology.

On its promulgation, in 1785, it excited great admira
tion, and was copied into every newspaper that made any
pretensions to liberality with approving comments. In
Europe, it produced a considerable sensation. It was
translated into all the principal languages, copied into the
newspapers, reviews, and encyclopedias, and applauded
beyond measure by the statesmen and philosophers of the
ancient world. Mr Jefferson was in France when the in
telligence of its passage was received in Europe, resi
dent Minister at the Court of Versailles ; and in his pri
vate letters to America, of that date, he speaks of the
admiration expressed for the act of religious freedom,
and the revised code generally.

In a letter to Mr Wythe, dated Paris, August 13, 1786,
he thus writes :

The European papers have announced, that the As
sembly of Virginia were occupied in the revisal of their
code of laws. This, with some other similar intelli-

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 141

gence, has contributed much to convince the people of
Europe, that what the English papers are constantly
publishing of our anarchy, is false : as they are sensible,
that such a work is that of a people only, who are in
perfect tranquillity. Our act for freedom of religion is
extremely applauded. The ambassadors and ministers
of the several nations of Europe, resident at this court,
have asked of me copies of it, to send to their sovereigns,
and it is inserted at full length in several books now in
the press ; among others, in the new Encyclopedic. I
think it will produce considerable good, even in these
countries, where ignorance, superstition, poverty, and
oppression of body and mind, in every form, are so firm
ly settled on the mass of the people, that their redemp
tion from them can never be hoped. If all the sove
reigns of Europe were to set themselves to work, to
emancipate the minds of their subjects from their pres
ent ignorance and prejudices, and that, as zealously as
they now endeavor the contrary, a thousand years would
not place them on that high ground, on which our com
mon people are now setting out. Ours could not have
been so fairly placed under the control of the common
sense of the people, had they not been separated from
their parent stock, and kept from contamination, either
from them, or the other people of the old world, by the
intervention of so wide an ocean. To know the worth
of this, one must see the want of it here.

The next distinguishing and fundamental change re
commended by the revisal, regarded the freedom of the
unhappy sons of Africa ; and proposed, directly, the
emancipation of all slaves born after the passage of the
act. The bill reported by the revisers, did not itself
contain this proposition ; but an amendment containing
it, was prepared, to be offered to the legislature when
ever the bill should be taken up. It was thought bet
ter, says the author, that this should be kept back, and
attempted only, by way of amendment. It was farther
agreed to embrace in the residuary proposition a clause,
directing that the after born slaves should continue with
their parents to a certain age, and then be brought
13

142 LIFE OF

up at the public expense, to tillage, arts or sciences, ac
cording to their geniuses, till the females should be
eighteen, and the males twenty-one years of age, when
they should be colonized to such place as the circum
stances of the time should render most proper, sending
them out with arms, implements of household and the
handicraft arts, seeds, pairs of the useful domestic ani
mals, <fcc ; to declare them a free and independent peo
ple, and to extend to them our alliance and protection,
till they should have acquired strength ; and to send
vessels, at the same time, to other parts of the world for
an equal number of white inhabitants, to induce whom
to migrate hither, proper encouragements were to be
proposed. But when the bill was taken up by the legis
lature, in 1785, neither Mr Jefferson, nor Mr Wythe,
his chief coadjutor in the undertaking, were members ;
the former being absent on the Legation to France, and
the latter, an officer of the judiciary department ; so
the contemplated amendment was not proposed, and the
bill passed unaltered, being a mere digest of the existing
laws on the subject, without any intimation of a plan
for future and general emancipation.

If there was any question connected with the freedom
and happiness of mankind, on which the genius of Mr
Jefferson kindled into an extravagance, incompatible
with sobriety and right reason, it was that of the eman
cipation of slaves. It was hardly possible for him, as
he declared, to write and be temperate on the subject.
The quotations already given, exhibit abundant evi
dence of the intensity with which he yearned, to use his
own language, for the moment of delivery to this op
pressed description of men. The following vehement
exhortation was penned in France, on learning the pas
sage of the Slave Bill in Virginia, without the adoption
of his concerted amendment.

1 What a stupendous, what an incomprehensible :
line is man ! who can endure toil, famine, stripes,

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 143

prisonment, and death itself, in vindication of his own
liberty, and, the next moment, be deaf to all those mo
tives whose power supported him through his trial, and
inflict on his fellow men a bondage, one hour of which
is fraught with more misery, than ages of that which he
rose in rebellion to oppose ! But we must await, with
patience, the workings of an overruling Providence, and
hope that that is preparing the deliverance of these our
suffering brethren. When the measure of their tears
shall be full, when their groans shall have involved
heaven itself in darkness, doubtless a God of justice will
awaken to their distress, and by diffusing light and
liberality among their oppressors, or at length, by his
exterminating thunder, manifest his attention to the
things of this world, and that they are not left to the
guidance of a blind fatality.

The following paragraph in allusion to the same trans
action of the legislature, was written at the age of
seventy-seven. Time but added emphasis to his appal
ling predictions, and strengthened his attachment to the
plan of redemption originally proposed by him.

4 It was found that the public mind would not yet
bear the proposition, nor will it bear it even at this day,
(1821.) Yet the day is not distant, when it must bear
and adopt it, or worse will follow. Nothing is more
certainly written in the book of fate, than that these
people are to be free ; nor is it less certain, that the
two races, equally free, cannot live in the same govern
ment. Nature, habit, opinion have drawn indelible
lines of distinction between them. It is still in our
power to direct the process of emancipation and depor
tation, peaceably, and in such slow degree, as that the
evil will wear off insensibly, and their place be, pari
passu, filled up by free white laborers. If, on the con
trary, it is left to force itself on, human nature must
shudder at the prospect held up. We should in vain
look for an example in the Spanish deportation, or dele
tion of the Moors. This precedent would fall far short
of our case.

The bill for proportioning crimes and punishments

144 LIFE OP

in cases heretofore capital, occupies a proud niche in
the temple of revolutionary reform. The changes it
proposed in the criminal code of the old world, were
of the most extensive character, and such as modern
experience has proved not inconsistent with the protec
tion and good order of society, while they prevented
the sacrifice of human life. Theoretical writers had
previously shaken the barbarous opinions which pre
vailed on the subject of penal jurisprudence ; among
whom Mr Jefferson mentions Beccaria, in particular, as
having satisfied the reasonable world, of the un right-
fulness and inefficacy of the punishment of crimes by
death. But no mitigation had been effected in prac
tice ; and the author of this act stands before the world
as the first official lawgiver, who having advanced to the
true theory of criminal ethics, went boldly arid rationally
to work to incorporate it into the body of civil juris
prudence. The legitimate object of all punishment
being, in his opinion, discipline rather than vengeance,
he made the reformation of the offender the fundamental
maxim of his theory, and graduated his scale of penal
sanctions by that standard. The punishment of death
putting this object entirely out of the question, he re
strained its infliction to cases in which reformation was
either hopeless, or too hazardous to attempt. Succeed
ing legislators and moral philosophers have adopted the
same principle for their guide ; and pursuing it to a still
greater extent, have effected still greater improvements
on the ancient economy. It led eventually to the
penitentiary system, now so well tested by experi
ence, as to have become nearly universal ; and the
idea has of late been carried so far as to have
brought seriously in question, the right and utility of
capital punishment in any case. That strong confidence
in the innate virtue of man, which led Mr Jefferson to
exclude the agency of force from every portion of the re
vised system that came under his control, placed him at

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 145

once on the same high and humane ground, in relation
to criminal jurisprudence, which is maintained by the
philanthropists of the present day.

The bill was brought forward in the legislature by Mi-
Madison, in 1785, and lost by a single vote. The intel
ligence of the country had not then advanced to a requi
site point for sanctioning the opinions of the revisor on
the subject of capital punishment. But it was well per
haps, on the whole, that the bill was rejected; for it
enabled the author to effect a substantial improvement
on his original plan ; to wit, the substitution of labor in
solitary confinement, for labor in the public works. The
latter, it will be recollected, had been adopted by the
revisors, in the room of punishment by death ; but it had
not then been essayed by actual experiment. Afterwards,
in 1786, the experiment was tried in Pennsylvania for two
years, without approbation, when it was followed by the
Penitentiary system, on the principle of labor in confine
ment, which succeeded beyond calculation. About the
same time Mr Jefferson, in France, had heard of a
benevolent society in England, which had been indulged
by the government in an experiment of the effect of labor
in solitary confinement on some of their criminals ;
which experiment was proceeding auspiciously. The
same idea had been suggested in France, and an archi
tect of Lyons had proposed a well contrived plan of a
prison, on the principle of solitary confinement. Atten
tive to these valuable hints, Mr Jefferson procured a
drawing of the prison proposed by this architect ; and
having a little before been written to by the governor of
Virginia, for a plan of a capitol and prison for that
State, he sent him the Lyons drawing, * in the hope,
says he, that it would suggest the idea of labor in soli
tary confinement, instead of that on the public works,
which we had adopted in our revised code. This was
in June, 1786. The principle, but not the exact form
of the drawing, was preserved in the erection of what is
13*

146 LIFE OF

now called the Penitentiary at Richmond. In the mean
time, the increasing intelligence and sensibility of the
age were preparing the way for the general sweep of
capital revocations, recommended by the revisors ; and
the public opinion was ripening, by reflection, and by
the example of Pennsylvania, for the adoption of the
newly essayed substitute.

In 1796, therefore, after the steady humanization of
ten years, the legislature resumed the subject of the
criminal law, and passed the bill reported by Mr Jeffer
son, with the substitution of solitary, in the room of
public labor. The diction of the text, however, was
modernized, which the author had scrupulously avoided,
to prevent new questions by new expressions ; and, in
stead of the settled distinctions of murder and man
slaughter, preserved by him, the new terms of murder in
the first and second degree, were introduced. These
alterations were probably not for the better, as they
gave occasion for renewed questions of definition. The
bill was brought forward the last time by Mr G. K.
Taylor, who was chiefly instrumental in procuring its
passage, with the amendments.

We come now to consider the last, and clearly the
most important scheme of public reformation contained
in the revised code, forming, as it does, the entrance
and a perpetual guard to the enjoyment of all the others.
The system, proposed for the diffusion of knowledge
through the whole mass of the people, by extending to
every degree of capacity a proportionate degree of edu
cation, and placing all upon an equal footing for ob
taining the first and necessary degrees, was an original
idea ; than which nothing would seem more admirably
contrived for the foundation of a durable and well or
dered republic. This portion of the work fell more
properly within the division assigned to Mr Pendleton ;
but it was agreed, on the urgent recommendation of Mr
Jefferson, that a new and systematical plan of universal

T^HOMAS JEFFERSON. 147

education should be proposed, and he was requested to
undertake it. He did so, preparing three bills for that
purpose, proposing three distinct grades of instruction,
in the following order : 1. Elementary schools, for all
children generally, rich and poor, without distinction.
2. Colleges, or, as they are more usually styled, in this
country, academies, for a middle degree of instruction,
calculated for the common purposes of life, yet such as
would be desirable for all who were in easy circum
stances. 3. A University, in the room of William and
Mary College, constituting the ultimate grade, for teach
ing the sciences generally, and in their highest degree.

The first and second bills were for the organization
of this system ; and the third for the establishment of
a public library and gallery, by the appropriation of a
certain sum annually to the purchase of books, paint
ings and statues.

The organization of the system, in all its parts, ex
hibits a model of republican equality and harmonious
arrangement. It proposed the division of the State into
twenty-four districts, and the subdivision of these into
wards called hundreds, of five or six miles square, ac
cording to the size and population of the district. In
each hundred was to be established an elementary
school, in which should be taught reading, writing, and
common arithmetic ; the expenses of which should be
borne by the inhabitants of the county, every one in pro
portion to his general tax rate. All free children, male
and female, resident in the hundred, should be entitled
to three years instruction at the school, free of expense,
and to as much more as they chose, by paying for it.
In each district was to be established an academy, or
grammar school, to be supported at the public expense,
in which should be taught the classics, grammar, geo
graphy, and the higher branches of numerical arith
metic.

The bill provides farther, for the annual selection of

148 LIFE OF

the most promising subjects from the elementary schools,
whose parents were too poor to educate them, who
should be transferred to the district institutions at the
public expense. And from the district institutions also,
a certain number annually were to be selected, of the
most promising character, but whose parents were un
able to incur the burthen, who should be sent on to the
University, to receive the ultimate degree of intellectual
cultivation. Genius and worth would thus be sought out
of every walk of life ; and, to adopt a favorite senti
ment of the author, the veritable aristocracy of nature
would be completely prepared by the laws, for defying
and defeating the pseudo-aristocracy of wealth and birth,
in the competition for public trusts.

It was farther in the contemplation of the author, had
his system been carried into operation, to have imparted to
the wards or hundreds, all those portions of self-govern
ment; for which they are best qualified ; by confiding
to them the care of their poor, their roads, police, elec
tions, the nomination of jurors, administration of justice
in small cases, and elementary exercises of militia ; in
short, to have made them little republics, with a warden
at the head of each, for all those concerns which, being
under their eye, they would better manage than the
larger republics of the county, or State. A general call
of ward meetings by the wardens, on the same day
throughout the State, would at any time embody the
genuine sense of the people, on any required point,
and present a forcible illustration of democratic govern
ment.

The three several bills, for the ward schools, the dis
trict institutions, the University, and for the establish
ment of a library and gallery, were all brought before
the legislature, in the year 1796. The first only was
acted upon, and finally adopted ; but with an amend
ment which completely defeated it. They inserted a
provision leaving it to the court of each county to de-

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 149

termine for itself, when the act should be carried into
execution. The effect of the bill being to throw on
wealth the education of the poor, and the justices being
unwilling to incur the responsibility, the plan was not
suffered to commence in a single county. The propo
sition to erect the College of William and Mary into a
University, encountered insuperable impediments. The
present college was an establishment purely of the
church of England ; the visitors were required to be all
of that church ; the professors to subscribe its thirty-
nine articles ; the students to learn its catechism ; and
one of its fundamental objects was declared to be, to
raise up ministers for that church. The dissenters took
alarm, lest the enlargement of the institution might give
an ascendency to the Anglican sect, and refused to act
upon the proposition. The bill for the establishment of
a library and gallery met a similar fate ; and thus no
part of this grand and beneficial system was ever per
mitted to take effect.

Perhaps there was no one feature of the revised code,
on which Mr Jefferson placed a more justly exalted es
timate, than that which proposed the diffusion of edu
cation universally and impartially among the people.
Knowledge is unquestionably, to use an expression of
his own, the key-stone of the political arch, in popu
lar governments, and the only foundation which can be
laid for permanent freedom and prosperity. Upon this
point he was enthusiastically pertinacious. His efforts
were perseveringly directed to its attainment, in the
form originally proposed by him, on all possible occa
sions which subsequently offered ; and on his final re
tirement from public affairs, he made it the great busi
ness of his life. Being in Europe, as before stated, at
the time the main body of the revisal was entered on,
he was prevented from raising his voice and utter
ing his opinions in the legislature, with the power
and authority he had formerly done ; but his letters to

150 LIFE OF

his friends in Virginia, of that date, abound with the
most eloquent persuasions of the importance of carrying
into effect those portions of the work, which he deemed
most essential to the freedom and happiness of the peo
ple. Among these, the bill under consideration occu
pied a prominent share of his solicitude ; as is manifested
by the following extract of a letter to Mr .Wythe, dated
Paris, August 13, 1786.

I think by far the most important bill in our whole
code, is that for the diffusion of knowledge among the
people. No other sure foundation can be devised for the
preservation of freedom and happiness. If any body
thinks, that kings, nobles, or priests are good conserva
tors of the public happiness, send him here. It is the
best school in the universe to cure him of that folly.
He will see here, with his own eyes, that these descrip
tions of men are an abandoned confederacy against the
happiness of the mass of the people. The omnipotence
of their effect cannot be better proved, than in this
country particularly, where, notwithstanding the finest
soil upon earth, the finest climate under heaven, and a
people of the most benevolent, the most gay and amia
ble character of which the human form is susceptible ;
where such a people, I say, surrounded by so many
blessings from nature, are loaded with misery by kings,
nobles, and priests, and by them alone. Preach, my
dear Sir, a crusade against ignorance : establish and
improve the law for educating the common people. Let
our countrymen know, that the people alone can pro
tect us against these evils, and that the tax which will
be paid for this purpose, is not more than the thousandth
part of what will be paid to kings, priests and nobles,
who will rise up among us, if we leave the people in ig
norance. The people of England, I think, are less op
pressed than here. But it needs but half an eye to see,
when among them, that the foundation is laid in their
dispositions for the establishment of a despotism. No
bility, wealth, and pomp are the objects of their admi
ration. They are by no means the free minded people,
we suppose them in America. Their learned men, too,

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 151

are few in number, and are less learned, and infinitely
less emancipated from prejudice than those of this coun-
try.

Such are some of the innovations on the established
order of things, contained in the celebrated revised
code of Virginia, in 1779 ; of all which, Mr Jefferson
was the originator and draughtsman. It is impossible,
at the present day, to form an adequate idea of this
great political work, or of the genius and application it
required. On the authority of Mr Madison we are en
abled to say, that it, perhaps, exceeded the severest of
Mr Jefferson s public labors. And the whole of this
magnificent undertaking was executed during the short
interval of three years, chiefly by an individual, and
carried into action mainly by his own efforts ; supported,
indeed, by able and faithful coadjutors from the ranks of
the house, very effective as seconds, but who would not |
have taken the field as leaders. The natural equality]
of the human race, the first maxim of the author s poli-/
tical creed, was the governing principle of his present!
general institute. Four of the bills reported were re
markable illustrations of this principle, sufficient to
crush forever the eternal antagonism of artificial aristo
cracy, against the rights and happiness of the people.
They were marshalled in phalanx by the author, for the
express purpose of carrying out the principle of equality
in all its latitude, as appears by his own record of the
transaction.

I considered four of these bills, passed or reported,
as forming a system by which every fibre would be
eradicated of ancient or future aristocracy ; and a foun
dation laid for a government truly republican. The
Repeal of the Laws of Entail would prevent the accu
mulation and perpetration of wealth, in select families,
and preserve the soil of the country from being daily
more and more absorbed in mortmain. The Abolition
of Primogeniture, and equal partition of inheritances,
removed the feudal and unnatural distinctions, which

152 LIFE OP

made one member of every family rich, and all the rest
poor, substituting equal partition, the best of all Agrarian
laws. The Restoration of the Rights of Conscience re
lieved the people from taxation for the support of a re
ligion not theirs ; for the establishment was truly of the
religion of the rich, the dissenting sects being entirely
composed of the less wealthy people; and these, by the
Bill for a General Education, would be qualified to un
derstand their rights, to maintain them, and to exercise
with intelligence their parts in self-government : and all
this would be effected, without the violation of a single
natural right of any one individual citizen. To these,
too, might be added, as a farther security, the introduc
tion of the trial by jury into the chancery courts, which
have already engulphed, and continue to engulph, so
great a proportion of the jurisdiction over our property.

Our detail of the public and official services of Mr
Jefferson, must now give place to an incident in pri
vate life, which discovers his social affections, and his
general philanthropy. At the memorable surrender of
Burgoyne in 77, it will be recollected, about four thous
and British troops fell prisoners of war into the hands of
the American general ; and by an express article in the
capitulation it was provided, that the surrendering army
should be retained in America, until an authentic ratifi
cation of the convention entered into between the bel
ligerents, should be received from the British govern
ment. The troops were at first ordered to Boston,
where they remained about a twelve-month, when they
were removed to Charlottesville, in Virginia, a short dis
tance from Monticello. They arrived at the latter place,
in January 1779, harassed by a long journey, during a
most inclement season, and doomed to encounter the
severest hardships on their arrival, from the unfinished
state of their barracks, the insufficiency of stores, and
the condition of the roads, which rendered the pros
pect of a timely and competent supply of subsistence al
most hopeless.

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 153

A general alarm was disseminated among the inhab
itants, insomuch that reasonable minds were affected by
the panic. Mr Jefferson remained tranquil and unmoved.
He stood among the multitude and exhorted them to pa
tience and composure ; and soon, agreeably to his re
peated assurances, every difficulty disappeared, and ev
ery apprehension vanished. The planters, being more
generally sellers than buyers, availed themselves, with
great activity, of the advantages produced by the extra
ordinary demand for provisions, and quickly removed a
scarcity merely accidental, to their own evident benefit.

In the mean time, Mr Jefferson engaged personally in
erecting barracks for the privates, and establishing ac
commodations for the officers. It is true, these men
were the instruments of a cruel and implacable enemy,
foes to the freedom and happiness of their benefactor,
and who, he well knew, regarded him with such animos
ity, that under any other circumstances, they would have
treated his offers of generosity with contempt. They
were the enemies of his country, whose cries were now
ascending to Heaven against the injuries of its oppres
sors ; but they were human beings, and as such entitled,
in his opinion, to the same offices of kindness and hos
pitality, when in distress, as those who were united to
him by the ties of national alliance. He was indefati
gable in his endeavors to render the situation of the
captives comfortable. Aided by the benevolent inter
position of the citizens of Charlottesville, and by the
genius and humane dispositions of the Commissary,
his exertions were attended with the most gratifying suc
cess. In a short time, the residence of the prisoners
assumed an air of comfort and ease ; the barracks were
completed, and a plentiful supply of provisions was pro
cured. The officers had rented houses at an extravagant
price, erected additional buildings at their own expense,
and hired small farms in the neighborhood, on which
they beguiled the tedious hours of captivity in the occu-
14

154 LIFE OF

pations of agriculture and gardening. The men imitat
ed, on a smaller scale, the example of the officers. The
environs of the barracks presented a charming appear
ance.

But these extensive and promising arrangements were
scarcely completed, when the executive of Virginia, who
had been invested by congress with certain discretionary
powers over the convention troops, as they were call
ed, came to the determination of removing them, either
wholly or in part, from Charlottesville, on the ground of
the insufficiency of the State for their animal subsistence.
The rumored intelligence of this determination, filled
the soldiers with the deepest regret and disappointment.
Loud complaints were heard against the inhumanity of
the measure ; the nation was accused of violation of
faith ; and such was the degree of excitement among
the prisoners, that mutiny was seriously apprehended.

The citizens among whom they were quartered par
ticipated in the general disapprobation. They contem
plated the proposition, with regret and mortification.
Mr Jefferson addressed a long letter to Gov. Henry, and
arrayed before him the public reasons, which militated
against the measure.

The reasonableness of this appeal, produced the in
tended effect. The governor and council, on a dispas
sionate review of the arguments submitted by Mr Jeffer
son, were convinced, that the removal or separation of
the troops would be a breach of the public faith, and fix
the character of unsteadiness, and what was worse, of
cruelty, on the councils of the nation. The proposition
was accordingly abandoned, and the troops permitted to
remain together at Charlottesville.

The conduct of Mr Jefferson, on this occasion, and
his uniform endeavors during their confinement, to ame
liorate their suffering condition, excited in the soldiers
the liveliest emotions of gratitude. They loaded him
with expressions of their sensibility ; and no time could

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 155

obliterate the impression from their hearts. Subse
quently, when ambassador in Europe, Mr Jefferson vis
ited Germany ; and passing through a town where one
of the Hessian corps, that had been at Charlottesville,
happened to be in garrison, he met with Baron De Geis-
mar, who immediately apprized his brother officers of
the presence of their benefactor. They flocked around
him, greeted him with affecting tokens of their remem
brance, and spoke of America with enthusiasm.

On taking leave of Charlottesville, the principal offi
cers, Major Generals Phillips and Riedesel, Brigadier
Specht, C. De Geismar, J. L. De linger, and some oth
ers, addressed him letters expressive of their lasting at
tachment, and bidding him an affectionate adieu. Phil
lips emphatically extols his delicate proceedings.
Riedesel repeatedly and fervently pours out his thanks,
and those of his wife and children. To all these letters,
Mr Jefferson returned answers. Some of these answers
have been preserved. The great cause which divides
our countries, he replied to Phillips, * is not to be de
cided by individual animosities. The harmony of pri
vate societies cannot weaken national efforts. To con
tribute, by neighborly intercourse and attention, to make
others happy, is the shortest and surest way of being
happy ourselves. As these sentiments seem to have di
rected your conduct, we should be as unwise as illiberal,
were we not to preserve the same temper of mind.

To General Riedesel he thus wrote : < The little at
tentions you are pleased to magnify so much, never de
served a mention or thought. Opposed as we hap
pen to be, in our sentiments of duty and honor, and anx
ious for contrary events, I shall nevertheless sincerely
rejoice in every circumstance of happiness and safety
which may attend you personally.

To Lieutenant De linger he replied in the following
manner : * The very small amusements which it has been
in my power to furnish, in order to lighten your heavy

156 LIFE OF

hours, by no means merited the acknowledgments you
make. Their impression must be ascribed to your ex
treme sensibility rather than to their own weight. When
the course of events shall have removed you to distant
scenes of action, where laurels not moistened with the
blood of my country, may be gathered, I shall urge my
sincere prayers for your obtaining every honor and pre
ferment which may gladden the heart of a soldier. On
the other hand, should your fondness for philosophy re
sume its merited ascendancy, is it impossible to hope,
that this unexplored country may tempt your residence,
by holding out materials, wherewith to build a fame,
founded on the happiness, and not on the calamities of
human nature 1 Be this as it may, a philosopher or a
soldier, I wish you personally many felicities. De lin
ger was a votary of literature and science. He was a
frequent visitor at the hospitable mansion of Mr Jeffer
son, and enjoyed in his library advantages, which his
taste combined with his situation to render doubly pre
cious. Other officers loved music and painting ; they
found in him a rich and cultivated taste for the fine arts.
They were astonished, delighted ; and their letters to
several parts of Germany, gave of the American char
acter, ideas derived from that exalted specimen. These
letters found their way into several Gazettes of the an
cient world, and the name of Jefferson was associated
with that of Franklin, whose fame had then spread over
Europe. Surely, says an historian,* this innocent
and bloodless conquest over the minds of men, whose
swords had originally been hired to the oppressors of
America, was in itself scarcely less glorious, though in
its effects less extensively beneficial, than the splendid
train of victories which had disarmed their hands.

* Girardin, p. 327.

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 157

CHAPTER VII.

ON the 1st of June, 1779, Mr Jefferson was elected
Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and retired
from the legislature with the highest dignity in their
gifts. Political distinctions being then unknown, the
ballot box determined the exact value put upon the
abilities of public characters.

On assuming the helm of administration, Mr Jeffer
son directed the weight of his station, and the powers
confided to him, towards reclaiming the enemy to the
principles of humanity in the treatment of American
prisoners. He had seen that the conduct of the British
officers, civil and military, had through the whole course
of the war, been savage, and unprecedented among
civilized nations ; that American officers and soldiers,
captured by them, had been loaded with irons con
signed to crowded gaols, loathsome dungeons, and pri
son-ships supplied often with no food, generally with
too little for the sustenance of nature, and that little so
unsound and unwholesome, as to have rendered cap
tivity and death almost synonymous terms ; that they
had been transported beyond seas, where their fate
could not be ascertained, or compelled to take arras
against their country, and by a refinement in cruelty to
become the murderers of their own brethren.

On the other hand, the treatment extended to British

prisoners by American victors, had been marked, he

well knew, with singular moderation and clemency.

They had been supplied, on all occasions, with whole-

14*

158 LIFE OP

some and plentiful food, provided with comfortable ac
commodations, suffered to range at large within exten
sive tracts of country, permitted to live in American
families, to labor for themselves, to acquire and enjoy
property, and to participate in the principal benefits of
society, while privileged from all its burthens. In some
cases they had been treated with hospitality and courtesy.
We have already witnessed the gratifying spectacle of
four thousand British troops, prisoners of war, relieved
suddenly from an accumulation of miseries, and raised
to a condition of competency and comfort, chiefly by his
own private enterprise, seconded by the liberality of his
fellow citizens.

Reviewing this contrast, governor Jefferson felt im
pelled by a sense of public justice, to substitute a system
of rigorous retribution. He felt called on, in the im
pressive language of his order, by that justice we owe
to those who are fighting the battles of our country, to
deal out miseries to their enemies, measure for measure,
and to distress the feelings of mankind by exhibiting to
them spectacles of severe retaliation, where we had
long and vainly endeavored to introduce an emulation
in kindness.

Happily, the fortune of war had thrown into his power
some of those very individuals who, having distinguish
ed themselves personally in the practise of cruelties,
were proper subjects on which to begin the work of re
taliation. Among these were Henry Hamilton, who for
some years past had acted as lieutenant governor of
the settlement at Detroit, under Sir Guy Carlton ; Philip
Dejean, justice of the peace for Detroit, and William
Lamothe, captain of volunteers, taken prisoners of
war by colonel Clarke at Fort St Vincents, and brought
under guard to Williamsburg, early in June, 79. Pro
clamations under his own hand, and the concurrent tes
timony of indifferent witnesses, proved governor Hamil
ton a remorseless destroyer of the human race, instead

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 159

of an open and honorable enemy. He had excited the
Indians to perpetrate their accustomed atrocities upon
the citizens of the United States, with an eagerness
and ingenuity, which evinced that the general nature of
the employment harmonized with his particular dispo
sition. He gave standing rewards for scalps, but offered
none for prisoners, which induced the Indians, after
compelling their captives to carry their baggage into the
neighborhood of the fort, to butcher them at last, and
carry in their scalps to the governor, who welcomed
their return and success by a discharge of cannon ; and
the few American prisoners spared by his blood-hounds,
were doomed by him to a captivity of lingering and
complicated tortures, terminating in death. Concern
ing Dejean and Lamothe, it was well ascertained that
they had, on all occasions, been the ready instruments
of Hamilton. The former, acting in the double capa
city of judge and jailor, had instigated him by malicious
insinuations, to increase rather than relax his severities,
and had aggravated the cruelty of his orders, by his
manner of executing them ; the latter, as commander of
volunteer scalping parties, Indians and whites, had deso
lated the frontier settlements by his marauding excur
sions, devoting to indiscriminate destruction, men, wo
men and children, and stimulating by his example, the
fury of his execrable banditti.*

Possessed by the force of American arms of such fit
subjects as these on which to make the first demonstra
tions of retributive justice, and coerce the enemy into
the usages of civilized warfare, Jefferson issued an
order in conformity to the advice of his council, direct
ing the above named prisoners to be put in irons, con
fined in the dungeon of the public gaol, debarred the
use of pen, ink and paper, and excluded from all con
versation, except with their keeper.

* Jefferson s Works, Vol. 1, Appendix, Note A.

160 LIFE OF

Major general Phillips, who continued near Char-
lottesville in captivity, having read in the Virginia
Gazette the order of the governor, immediately ad
dressed him a remonstrance on the subject. In his
communication, he endeavored to invalidate the testi
mony against Hamilton, and to extenuate his conduct ;
expressed doubts respecting the authority of any par
ticular State to enter upon retaliation, which he sup
posed belonged exclusively to Congress ; expatiated
largely on the sacred nature of a capitulation, which in
the present case, he contended, exempted the prisoner
from the severe punishment inflicted on him, whatever
his previous conduct might have been ; and in conclu
sion, entreated the governor to reconsider the subject.
* From my residence in Virginia, he adds, * I have con
ceived the most favorable idea of the gentlemen of this
country ; and from my personal acquaintance with you,
Sir, I am led to imagine it must have been very disso
nant to the feelings of your mind, to inflict such a
weight of misery and stigma of disgrace upon the un
fortunate gentleman in question.

Whatever may have been the feelings of Mr Jefferson,
when no superior obligation stood in the way, (and none
had better reason to honor them than general Philips
and his fellow captives,) his present situation, as chief
magistrate, required the stern subordination of those
feelings to the service of his country, and the general
good of mankind. His own opinion was, that all per
sons taken in war, as well those who surrendered on
capitulation, as those who surrendered at discretion,
were to be deemed prisoners of war and liable to the
same treatment ; except only so far as they were pro
tected by the express terms of their capitulation. In
the surrender of governor Hamilton, no stipulation was
made as to the treatment of himself or his fellow pri
soners. The governor indeed, upon signing, had ad
ded a flourish of reasons, which induced him to capitu-

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 161

late, one of which was the generosity of his victorious
enemy. Generosity, on a large and comprehensive
scale, thought Mr Jefferson, dictated the making a sig
nal example of the gentleman ; but waving that, these
were only the private motives inducing him to surrender,
and did not enter into the contract of the antagonist
party. He continued in the belief, therefore, that the
bare existence of a capitulation did not exempt Hamil
ton from confinement, there being in the contract no
positive stipulation to that effect. The importance of
the point, however, in a national view, and his great
anxiety for the honor of the government under a charge
of violated faith by one of its supreme functionaries, in
duced him to submit the question to the commander in
chief.

General Washington saw with pleasure the executive
of his native State, entering upon a course of measures
which the conduct of the enemy had rendered necessary.
But, entertaining doubts as to the real bearing and extent
of the capitulation in question, and concurring with Mr
Jefferson, in a sacred respect for the laws and usages
of civilized nations, he recommended a relaxation of
severities, after a fair trial of the practical effect of the
present proceeding. One solemn inculcation would
have been administered ; Virginia would have it in her
power to repeat it. This alone might produce the in
tended reformation, and remove the necessity of indi
vidual chastisement for national barbarities.

Influenced by the advice of the commander in chief,
which harmonized with the better dictates of his heart,
governor Jefferson reconsidered the case of the captives,
and issued a second order in council, mitigating the se
verity of the first, though not compromising the right in
any one point.

Agreeably to this order, a parole was drawn up and
tendered to the prisoners. It required them to be inoffen
sive in word as well as deed ; to which they objected, in-

162 LIFE OF

sisting on entire freedom of speech. They were conse
quently remanded to their confinement, which was now
to be considered voluntary. Their irons, however, were
knocked off. The subaltern prisoners soon after sub
scribed the parole, and were enlarged ; but Hamilton
long refused the proffer. Upon being informed by gen
eral Phillips, who had been exchanged, that his suffer
ings would be perfectly gratuitous, he at last complied.
These measures of governor Jefferson produced the
effects anticipated. In the first moments of passion, the
British resorted to what they termed, retaliation ; being
a revival in more hideous forms, of their established prac
tices therefore, to be deemed original and unprovoked
in every new instance. A declaration was also issued,
that no officers of the Virginia line should be exchanged
till Hamilton s affair should be satisfactorily settled.
When this information was received, the governor im
mediately ordered all exchange of British prisoners to be
stopped, with the determination to use them as pledges
for the safety of Americans in like circumstances. It
is impossible, he writes to General Washington, they
can be serious in attempting to bully us in this manner.
We have too many of their subjects in our power, and
too much iron to clothe them with, and I will add, too
much resolution to avail ourselves of both, to fear their
pretended retaliation. Effectual measures were taken
for ascertaining, from time to time, the situation and
treatment of American captives, with a view to retaliate
on the enemy corresponding treatment in all cases ;
and the prison ship fitted up on the recommendation of
Congress, was ordered to a proper station, for the recep
tion and confinement of such as should be sent to it.
* I am afraid, he again writes to the commander in
chief, I shall hereafter, perhaps, be obliged to give
your excellency some trouble in aiding me to obtain in
formation of the future usage of our prisoners. I shall
give immediate orders for having in readiness every en-

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 163

gine, which the enemy have contrived for the destruction
of our unhappy citizens captivated by them. The pre
sentiment of these operations is shocking beyond ex
pression. I pray heaven to avert them ; but nothing in
this world will do it, but a proper conduct in the enemy.
In every event, I shall resign myself to the hard necessity
under which I shall act.

The governor was not insensible to the aggravation of
misery, which the first exercises of his policy brought on
those unfortunate citizens of the United States, who
were in the power of the enemy. On the contrary, he
entered feelingly into their situation, and encouraged
them, by appeals to their fortitude, to bear up against a
temporary increase of personal suffering, for the lasting
and general benefit of their country.

These sentiments of the executive, lifted the hearts
of the American prisoners. They acquiesced in the
stern necessity which dictated the disregard of their
private distresses, in the prospect of the general ameli
oration of captivated man. Nor was this anticipa
tion wholly disappointed. The practical inculcation of
such a lesson, produced a sensible effect upon the con
duct of the enemy, through the subsequent stages of the
war. British magnanimity was compelled to yield to
the cries of their own countrymen, and the admonitions
of experience.

In the same spirit which guided his military opera
tions, the governor engaged in a civil transaction of ex
tensive and solid utility to the commonwealth. Upon
the mediation of Spain, offered about this time, sanguine
hopes were entertained of an approaching pacification ;
and Congress in settling their ultimatum, had intimated
that the principle of uti possidetis should be recognized
in adjusting the boundaries of the several States.
Whereupon, Mr Jefferson instituted active measures for
extending the western establishments of Virginia, with a
view to secure by actual possession, the right of that

164 LIFE OF

State in its whole extent, to the Mississippi. He engag
ed a company of scientific gentlemen to proceed under
an escort to the Mississippi, and ascertain by celestial
observation, the point on that river intersected by the
latitude of thirty-six and a half degrees, the southern
limit of the State ; and to measure its distance from the
moath of the Ohio.

The brave arid enterprising Colonel Clarke, who by a se
ries of unparalleled successes over the Indians, had already
secured extensive acquisitions to Virginia, was selected by
the governor to conduct the military operations. He
was directed, so soon as the southern limit on the Mis
sissippi should be ascertained, to select a strong position,
near that point, and to establish there a fort and garrison ;
thence to extend his conquests northward to the lakes,
erecting forts at different points, which might serve as
monuments of actual possession, besides affording pro
tection to that portion of the country. Under these or
ders, Fort Jefferson, in compliment to the founder of the
enterprize, was erected and garrisoned on the Mississip
pi, a few miles above the southern limit. The final re
sult of this expedition, was the addition to the chartered
limits of Virginia, of that immense tract of country north
west of the Ohio river, which includes the present States
of Indiana, Illinois, Ohio in part, and the Michigan
Territory.

The following year, 1780, on the urgent recommenda
tion of Mr Jefferson, and in compliance with the wishes
of Congress, a resolution passed the legislature, ceding
to the United States the whole of this vast extent of ter
ritory. This important event removed the great obsta
cle to the ratification of the confederacy between the
States. Upon transmitting the resolution to the Presi
dent of Congress, the governor wrote : I shall be ren
dered very happy if the other States of the union,
equally impressed with the necessity of the important
convention in prospect, shall be willing to sacrifice equal-

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 165

ly to its completion. This single event, could it take
place shortly, would outweigh every success which the
enemy have hitherto obtained, and render desperate the
hopes to which those successes have given birth.

To this resolution, were appended the well known sen
timents of Mr Jefferson with respect to the navigation of
the Mississippi, and the necessity of securing a free port
at the mouth of that river.

In the course of one month after the adoption of this
measure, the confederation was completed.

On the first of June, 1780, Mr Jefferson was re-elected /
governor by the unanimous vote of the legislature. !
During his second gubernatorial term, Virginia, which
had hitherto been distant from the seat of war, was des
tined to be made the theatre of a campaign more ardu
ous, perilous and distressing, than that of any other pe
riod of the revolution. Three systematic invasions by
numerous and veteran armies, inundated the State, in
quick and terrible succession ; nor could there have been
a more unfavorable concurrence of circumstances, for
offering an adequate resistance, than existed during the
whole time these operations were carried on. Virginia
was completely defenceless ; her physical resources were
exhausted ; her troops had been drawn off to the South
and to the North, to meet the incessant demands in those
quarters, and the continental army was too much re
duced to afford her any important succors. The militia
constituted the only force on which any reliance could
be placed ; and the resort to this force was limited by
the deficiency of arms, which was aggravated by the
pressing destitution of the finances. Indeed, the gene
ral condition of the country at the South, exhibited a de
plorable aspect. The city of Charleston, with the main
body of the continental army, had fallen into the hands
of Lord Cornwallis ; arid the victor, inflated with suc
cess, had proclaimed his intention of pushing his advan
ces northward, on a magnificent scale of conquest, sub-
15

166

LIFE OF

jugating in his course the entire States of North Caro
lina and Virginia, and devoting the inhabitants to uncon
ditional submission or the sword.

Intelligence of these menacing calculations had no
sooner reached Virginia, than the governor commenced
the most vigorous measures for recruiting the army, and
putting the country in a firm posture of defence. For
this purpose, he was invested by the legislature with
new and extraordinary powers. Should the State be in
vaded, 20,000 militia were placed at his disposal ; he
was empowered to impress provisions and other articles
for the public service, and likewise to lay an embargo in
the ports of the commonwealth, whenever expedient.
He was authorized to confine or remove all persons sus
pected of disaffection ; and to subject to martial law in
dividuals acting as spies or guides to the enemy, or in
any manner aiding, abetting, and comforting them, or
disseminating among the militia the seeds of discontent,
mutiny and revolt. He was directed to perfect the labo
ratory for the manufacture of arms, which had of late
been languishing ; and at the same time, to provide mag
azines for warlike stores. To meet the pecuniary exi
gencies of the times, paper emissions were necessarily
multiplied ; and new taxes were devised.

These defensive arrangements were scarcely made,
when their execution was suddenly suspended by the
appearance in the Chesapeake, of a strong British
armament, under the command of General Leslie. Re
sistance by maritime means being unavailable at this
juncture, the governor immediately collected as large a
body of militia as he could equip, to prevent the de
barkation of the enemy ; but the alarm of the inhabit
ants, whose first care was to secure their wives, children,
and inoveable property, together with the insufficiency
of arms, rendered his exertions ineffectual. It was to
him a source of anguish and mortification, to think that
a people, able and zealous to repel the invader, should

THOMAS JEFFERSON.

167

be reduced to impotence by the want of defensive weap
ons. The enemy landed at different points, but soon
concentrated their forces in Portsmouth, fortified them
selves, and remained in close quarters until they re
treated on board their ships. It appears this force had
been detached by Cornvvallis to invade Virginia by
water, occupy Portsmouth for the purposes of support
and safe rendezvous, and join the main army under his
command, on its entrance by land into the southern
borders of the State. But the precipitate retreat of
Cornwallis into South Carolina, in consequence of seri
ous reverses in that quarter, defeated Leslie s anticipat
ed junction with the main army, and compelled his sud
den departure from the State, leaving his works unfinish
ed and undestroyed. The principal injury resulting
from this invasion, was the loss of a quantity of cattle
intended for the southern army, which were seized by
the enemy immediately after disembarking. Indeed,
the conduct of this detachment whilst in Virginia, was
an honorable exception, in all respects, to the predatory
system which had hitherto marked the footsteps of
British conquest. I must, writes the governor to
General Washington, do their general and commander
the justice to observe, that in every case, which their
attention and influence could reach, as far as I have
been informed, their conduct was such as does them the
greatest honor. In the few instances of wanton and un
necessary devastation, they punished the aggressors.
To the firmness of Mr Jefferson in the case of Hamilton,
history ascribes in great part, this reputable deviation
from a mode of warfare which all mankind must abhor.*
This hostile armament had scarcely left the coast,
when Virginia was surprised by another invasion, of a
more formidable character, from an unexpected quarter.
The parricide Arnold, apprised of the vulnerable condi-

* History of Virginia, vol. 4, p. 421.

168

LIFE OP

tion of Virginia on the sea-board, undertook a second
attack by a naval force. He embarked from New York,
at the instance of Sir Henry Clinton, and on the 30th of
December, 1780, was seen entering the Capes of Vir
ginia with twenty-seven sail of vessels. He ascended
James river and landed about fifteen miles below Rich
mond. On the approach of a hostile force into the heart
of the State, the inhabitants were thrown into consterna
tion. The governor made every effort for calling in a
sufficient body of militia to resist the incursion ; but, be
ing dispersed over a large tract of country, they could
be collected but slowly. Richmond being evidently the
object of their attack, every effort was necessary for im
mediately securing the arms, military stores, records,
&>c, from the ravages of the profligate invader. He
hastily embodied about two hundred half armed militia,
for the purpose of protecting the removal of the records,
military stores, &c, to the opposite side of James river.
He superintended their movements in person ; and was
seen urging by his presence, the business of transporta
tion, and issuing his orders, until the enemy had actually
entered the lower part of the town, preceded by a body
of light horse. Soon after the whole regiment poured
into Richmond, and commenced the work of pillage
and conflagration. They burnt the foundry, the boring-
mill, the roagazine, a number of dwelling-houses, the
books and papers of the auditor s and council office, and
retired the next day. Within less than forty-eight hours,
they had penetrated thirty-three miles into the country,
committed the whole injury, and retreated down the
river. The governor himself narrowly escaped being
taken, owing to the suddenness of the attack, and his
continuance on the scene of danger at an unreasonable
hour, for the purpose of securing the public property.
He had previously sent his family to Tuckahoe, eight
miles above Richmond, on the same side of the river;
but did not join them himself until 1 o clock in the night.

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 169

He returned the next morning, and continued his per
sonal attendance in the vicinity of the metropolis during
the whole invasion, to the imminent exposure of his
life.

Arnold shortly after encamped at Portsmouth, where
he remained for a long time, in close quarters. The
capture of this execrable traitor had, from the moment
of his perfidy, been an object of eager pursuit with all
the patriots. Mr Jefferson was induced to consider it
practicable while in his present extremity, and secretly
offering a reward of 5000 guineas for his apprehension,
incited some venturous spirits to undertake it, by strata
gem. But Arnold had become cautious and circum
spect, beyond the reach of artifice. He lay buried in
close confinement at Portsmouth, suffered no stranger to
approach him, and never afterwards unguardedly ex
posed his person. The enterprise was thus rendered
abortive.

The real situation of Virginia, at this period, is de
picted in the letters arid dispatches of the governor.
The fatal want of arms, he wrote on the 8th of Feb
ruary, puts it out of our power to bring a greater force
into the field than will barely suffice to restrain the
adventures of the pitiful body of men the enemy have at
Portsmouth. Should they be reinforced, the country
will be perfectly open to them by land as well as by
water. I have been knocking at the door of Con
gress, he again wrote on the 17th, for aids of all
kinds, but especially of arms, ever since the middle of
summer. The speaker, Harrison, is gone to be heard
on that subject. Justice, indeed, requires that we should
be aided powerfully. Yet, if they would only repay us
the arms we have lent them, we should give the enemy
trouble, though abandoned to ourselves. On the same
day, he addressed the commander-in-chief, as follows:
Arms and a naval force, are the only means of salva
tion for Virginia* Two days a.gOj I received informa-
15*

170 LIFE OF

tion of the arrival of a sixty-four gun ship and two frig
ates, in our bay, being part of the fleet of our good ally,
at Rhode-Island. Could they get at the British ships,
they are sufficient to destroy them, but these are drawn
up into Elizabeth river, into which the sixty-four cannot
enter. I apprehend they could do nothing more than
block up the river. This, indeed, would reduce the
enemy, as we could cut off their supplies by land ; but
the operation requiring much time, would probably be
too dangerous for the auxiliary force. Not having yet
had any particular information of the designs of the
French commander, I cannot pretend to say what mea
sures this will lead to.

This desperate situation of affairs was aggravated by
the arrival in the bay, of two thousand additional British
troops, under the command of Major General Phillips.
This reinforcement shortly after formed a junction with
Arnold, and the combined forces, under Phillips, imme
diately renewed on a more extensive scale than hereto
fore, their system of predatory and incendiary incursions
into all parts of the unprotected country. They cap
tured and laid waste Williamsburg, Petersburg, and
several minor settlements ; and pursued their destroying
advances from village to village, until they were arrested
by the gallant defender of universal liberty the im
mortal La Fayette.

During the ferocious and discursive operations of Phil
lips and Arnold, the governor remained constantly in
and about Richmond, exerting all his powers to collect
the militia, and provide such means for the defence of
the State, as its exhausted resources allowed. Never
assuming a guard, and with only the river between him
and the enemy, his lodgings were frequently within four
or five miles of them, and his personal exposure was
consequently very great.

But the final movement against Virginia, compared to
which the previous invasions were feeble and desultory

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 171

efforts, remains to be noticed. On the 20th of May,
1781, Lord Cornwallis entered the State, on the south
ern frontier, with an army of four thousand men. His
entry was almost triumphal. Proceeding directly to
Petersburg, where he formed a junction with the forces
under Phillips and Arnold, he established his head quar
ters, and commenced his plan of subduing the whole
State.

This alarming event happened but a few days previous
to the close of Mr Jefferson s administration ; and, in
view of the impending crisis, he felt it his duty, before
resigning the government into other hands, to make one
last, solemn appeal to the commander in chief, for those
important succors, on which now evidently depended the
salvation of the commonwealth.

Your excellency will

judge from this state of things, and from what you know
of our country, what it may probably suffer during the
present campaign. Should the enemy be able to pro
duce no opportunity of annihilating the Marquis s army,
a small proportion of their force may yet restrain his
movements effectually, while the greater part are em
ployed, in detachment, to waste an unarmed country,
and lead the minds of the people to acquiescence under
those events, which they see no human power prepared
to ward off". We are too far removed from the other
scenes of war to say, whether the main force of the en
emy be within this State. But I suppose they cannot
any where spare so great an army for the operations of
the field. Were it possible for this circumstance to jus
tify in your excellency, a determination to lend us your
personal aid, it is evident from the universal voice, that
the presence of their beloved countryman, whose talents
have so long been successfully employed in establishing
the freedom of kindred States, to whose person, they
have still flattered themselves they retained some right,
and have ever looked up, as their dernier resort in dis
tress, would restore full confidence of salvation to our
citizens, and would render them equal to whatever is not

172 LIFE OF

impossible. I cannot undertake to foresee and obviate
the difficulties which lie in the way of such a resolution.
The whole subject is before you, of which I see only de
tached parts : and your judgment will be formed on a
view of the whole. Should the danger of this State,
and its consequence to the union, be such, as to render
it best for the whole that you should repair to its assist
ance, the difficulty would then be, how to keep men out
of the field. I have undertaken to hint this matter to
your excellency, not only on my own sense- of its im
portance to us, but at the solicitations of many members
of weight in our legislature, which has not yet assembled
to speak their own desires.

A. few days will bring to me that relief which the
constitution has prepared for those oppressed with the
labors of my office; and a long declared resolution of re
linquishing it to abler hands, has prepared my way for re
tirement to a private station : still, as an individual, I
should feel the comfortable effects of your presence, and
have (what I thought could not have been) an additional
motive for that gratitude, esteem, and respect, with
which I have the honor to be, &c.

This letter was written three days previous to the ex
piration of his second gubernatorial year ; at which
time, he had long cherished the determination of relin
quishing the administration in favor of a successor, whose
habits, dispositions and pursuits would render him better
fitted for the supreme direction of affairs at such a crisis.
From the belief, said he, that, under the pressure of
the invasion, under which we were then laboring, the
public would have more confidence in a military chief,
and that the military commander being invested with
the civil power also, both might be wielded with more
energy, promptitude and effect for the defence of the
State, I resigned the administration at the end of my
second year, and General Nelson was appointed to suc
ceed me. His successor was elected, on the 12th of
June, 1781.

The closing events of Mr Jefferson s administration

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 173

having excited much attention, and occasioned some
misrepresentation, a few additional observations, found
ed on authentic documents, seem due to that portion of
his public history.

Ever since the invasion of the metropolis, under Ar
nold, in January, 81, and the sudden dispersion by that
event, of the general assembly, the legislative functions
of the government had been almost totally suspended.
The members had re-assembled on the first of March,
but after a few days session, were compelled to adjourn ;
they met again on the 7th of May, but the movements
of the enemy, again compelled them, on the 10th, to ad-
journ to Charlottesville, to meet on the 24th. During
this long and critical interval, therefore, the main bur
den of public affairs had devolved on the governor.

In addition to the multiplied irruptions from the East
and the South, Virginia had had a powerful army to op
pose on her western frontier. The English and Indians
were incessantly harassing her in that quarter, by their
savage incursions. At length, the powerful army under
Cornwallis poured into the State, and filled up the meas
ure of public danger and distress. The legislature,
which had hastily adjourned from Richmond to Char
lottesville, had scarcely assembled at the latter place,
when they were driven thence by the enemy, over the
mountains to Staunton. This was on the last days of
May. Pursued and hunted in this manner, from county
to county, with the armies of the enemy in the heart of
the State, destitute of internal resources, and aided only
by the small regular force under La Fayette, many mem
bers of that assembly became dissatisfied, discouraged,
desperate; and in the frenzy of the moment, began
to resuscitate the deceased project of a dictator. Some,
indeed, were so infatuated as to deem the measure not
only salutary, but as presenting the only hope of deliv-

174 LIFE OF

erance at this juncture. An individual,* who had borne
a distinguished part in the anterior transactions of the
revolution, was already designated for the office. But
it was foreseen with dismay by those who desired a dic
tator, that no headway could be made with such a prop
osition, against the popularity and influence of the pres
ent executive ; it was necessary, as a first measure, that
he should be rendered powerless. For this purpose, his
official character was attacked ; the misfortunes of the
period were imputed to the imbecility of his administra
tion ; he was impeached in a loose, informal way, and
a day for some species of hearing, at the succeeding
session of the assembly, was appointed. But no evi
dence was ever offered to sustain the impeachment ; no
question was ever taken upon it, disclosing in any man
ner, the approbation of the legislature ; and the hearing
was appointed by general consent, for the purpose, as
many members expressed themselves, of giving Mr Jef
ferson an opportunity of demonstrating the absurdity of
the censure. Indeed, the whole effort at impeachment
was a mere feint, designed to remove Mr Jefferson out
of the way for the present, and to make manifest, if
possible, the necessity of a dictator. It failed, however,
in both objects ; the effect on Mr Jefferson was entirely
the reverse of what had been intended ; and as to the
proposed dictatorship, the pulse of the assembly was in
cidentally felt in the debates on the state of the com
monwealth, and in out-door conversations, the general
tone of which foretold such a violent opposition to the
measure, that the original movers were induced to aban
don it with precipitation. This was the second instance
of a similar attempt in that State, and of a similar re
sult, caused chiefly by the ascendancy of the same in
dividuals.

While these things were going on at Staunton, Mr

* Mr Henry.

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 175

Jefferson was distant from the scene of action, at Bed
ford, neither interfering himself, nor applied to by the
legislature for any information touching the charges pre
ferred against him ; but so soon as the project for a dic
tator was dropped, his resignation of the government ap
peared. This produced a new scene ; the dictator men
insisted upon re-electing him ; but his friends strenuous
ly opposed it, on the ground, that as he had divested
himself of the government to heal the divisions of the
legislature, at that critical season, for the public good,
and to meet the accusation upon equal terms, for his own
honor, his motives were too strong to be relinquished.
Still, on the nomination of General Nelson, the most
popular man in the State, and without an enemy in the
legislature, a considerable portion of the assembly voted
for Mr Jefferson.

On the day appointed for the hearing before men
tioned, Mr Jefferson appeared in the house of dele
gates, having been intermediately elected a member.
No one offered himself as his accuser. Mr George
Nicholas, who had been seduced to institute the pro
ceeding, and who afterwards paid him deference equally
honorable to both,* had satisfied himself, in the interim,
of the utter groundlessness of the charges, and declined
the farther prosecution of the affair. Mr Jefferson
nevertheless rose in his seat, addressed the house in
general terms upon the subject, and expressed his readi
ness to answer any accusations which might be prefer
red against him. Silence ensued. Not a word of cen
sure was whispered. After a short pause, the following
resolution was proposed, and adopted unanimously by
both houses. f

* G. Nicholas letter to his constituents Kentucky.

t Most of this relation is copied with verbal precision from the
statement of an eye witness of the whole transaction, inserted in
the Appendix to the Continuation of Burk s History of Virginia.

176 LIFE OF

Resolved, That the sincere thanks of the general
assembly, be given to our former governor, THOMAS JEF
FERSON, Esq. for his impartial, upright and attentive ad
ministration, whilst in office. The assembly wish in the
strongest, manner to declare the high opinion which they
entertain of Mr Jefferson s ability, rectitude, and in
tegrity, as chief magistrate of this commonwealth, and
mean, by thus publicly avowing their opinion, to obviate
and to remove all unmerited censure.

A few days after the expiration of Mr Jefferson s con
stitutional term of office, and before the appointment of
his successor, an incident occurred which has been so
strangely misrepresented in later times, as to justify a
relation of the details.

Learning that the general assembly was in session at
Charlottesville, Cornwallis detached the ferocious Tarl-
ton, to proceed to that place, take the members by sur
prise, seize on the person of Mr Jefferson, whom they
supposed still in office, and spread devastation and terror
on his route.

Elated with the idea of an enterprise so congenial to
his disposition, and confident of an easy prey, Tarlton
selected a competent body of men, and proceeded with
ardor on his expedition. Early in the morning of June
4th, when within about ten miles of his destination, he
detached a troop of horse under captain M Cleod, to
Monticello, the well known seat of Mr Jefferson ; and
proceeded himself with the main body, to Charlottes
ville, were he expected to find the legislature unapprised
of his movement. The alarm, however, had been con
veyed to Charlottesville, about sunrise the same morn
ing, and thence quickly to Monticello, only three miles
distant. The speakers of the two houses were lodging
with Mr Jefferson at his house. His guests had barely
time to hurry to Charlottesville, adjourn the legislature
to Staunton, and, with most of the other members, to
effect their escape. He immediately ordered his car-

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 177

riage, in which Mrs Jefferson and her children were
conveyed to the house of colonel Carter, on the neigh
boring mountain, while himself tarried behind, break
fasted as usual, and completed some necessary arrange
ments preparatory to his departure. Suddenly, a mes
senger, lieutenant Hudson, who had descried the rapid
advance of the enemy, drove up at half speed, arid gave
him a second and last alarm ; stating that the enemy
were already ascending the winding road which leads
to the summit of Monticello, and urging his immediate
flight. He then calmly ordered his riding horse, which
was shoeing at a neighboring blacksmith s, directing him
to be led to a gate opening on the road to colonel Car
ter s, whither he walked by a cross path, mounted his
horse, and instead of taking the high road, plunged into
the woods of the adjoining mountain and soon rejoined
his family.

In less than ten minutes after Mr Jefferson s depar
ture, his house was surrounded by the impetuous light
horse, thirsting for their prey. They entered the man
sion with a flush of expectation proportioned to the
value of their supposed victim ; and, notwithstanding
the chagrin and irritation which their disappointment ex
cited, an honorable regard was manifested for the usages
of enlightened nations at war. Mr Jefferson s property
was respected, especially his books and papers, by the
particular injunctions of M Cleod.

This is the famous adventure of Carter s mountain.
Had the facts been accidentally stated, it would have
appeared that this favorite fabrication amounted to no
thing more, than that Mr Jefferson did not remain in his
house, and there fight, single handed, a whole troop of
horse, whose main body, too, was within supporting
distance, or suffer himself to be taken prisoner. It is
somewhat singular, that this egregious offence was never
heard of until many years after, when most of that
generation had disappeared, and a new one risen up.
16

178 LIFE OP

Although the whole affair happened some days before
the abortive attempt at impeachment, neither his con
duct on this occasion, nor his pretended flight from
Richmond, in January previous, were included among
the charges.

Having accompanied his family one day s journey,
Mr Jefferson returned to Monticello. Finding the ene
my gone, with few traces of depredation, he again re
joined his family, and proceeded with them to an estate
he owned in Bedford ; where, galloping over his farm
one day, he was thrown from his horse and disabled
from riding on horse-back for a considerable time. But
the partizan version of the story found it more con
venient to give him this fall in his retreat before Tarlton,
some weeks before, as a proof that he withdrew from a
troop of horse, with a precipitancy which Don Quixote
would not have practised.

M Cleod tarried about eighteen hours at Monticello,
and Tarlton about the same time at Charlottesville,
when the detachments reunited and retired to Elkhill,
a plantation of Mr Jefferson s. At this place, Corn-
wallis had now encamped with the main army, and
established his head quarters. Some idea may be form
ed of the Vandalism practised by the British, during
their continuance at Elkhill and the whole succeeding
part of that campaign, from the fact that their devasta
tions in those six months are estimated by Mr Jefferson
at about three millions sterling. Under Cornwallis s
hands, Virginia lost about thirty thousand slaves that
year. Wherever he went, the country was plundered of
every thing which could be carried off; but over Mr
Jefferson s possessions he seemed to range with a spirit
of total extermination. He destroyed all his growing
crops of corn and tobacco ; burned all his barns, con
taining the last year s crops ; used, as was to be ex
pected, all his stock of cattle, sheep, and hogs, for the
sustenance of his army ; carried off all his horses capa-

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 179

ble of service, cutting the throats of the rest ; and
burned all the fences on the plantation, so as to leave it
an absolute waste.

We are now hurried from the scenes of war and con
fusion, to a delightful i interval in Mr Jefferson s life
in which he recurred with eagerness to the pursuits of
science.

During the early part of the turbulent year of 81,
while disabled from active employment by the fall from
his horse, he found sufficient leisure to compose his cele
brated Notes on Virginia. This was the only original
publication in which he ever embarked ; nor was the
work prepared with the most distant intention of com
mitting it to the press. Its history is a little curious.

M. de Marbois, of the French legation, in Philadel
phia, having been instructed by his government to obtain
such statistical accounts of the different States of the
Union, as might be useful for their information, address
ed a letter to Mr Jefferson, containing a number of que
ries relative to the State of Virginia. These queries
embraced an extensive range of objects, and were de
signed to elicit a general view of the geography, natural
productions, government, history, and laws of the com
monwealth. Mr Jefferson had always made it a practice,
when travelling, to commit his observations to writing;
and to improve every opportunity, by conversations with
the inhabitants and by personal examination, to enlarge
his stock of information on the physical and moral con
dition of the country.

These memoranda were on loose pieces of paper, pro-
ynscuously intermixed, and difficult of arrangement,
when occasion required the use of any particular one.
He improved the present opportunity, therefore, to di
gest and embody the substance of them, in the order of
M. de Marbois queries, so as to gratify the wishes of the
French government, and arrange them for his own con-

180 LIFE OF

venience. Some friends, to whom they were occasional
ly communicated in manuscript, requested copies ; but
their volume rendering the business of transcribing too
laborious, he proposed to get a few printed, for their pri
vate gratification. He was asked such a price, however,
as exceeded in his opinion, the importance of the object,
and abandoned the idea. Subsequently, on his arrival
in Paris in 84, he found the printing could be obtained
for one fourth part of what had been required in America.
He thereupon revised and corrected the work, and had two
hundred copies printed, under the modest title which it
bears. He gave out a very few copies to his particular
friends in Europe, writing in each one a restraint against
its publication ; and the remainder he transmitted to his
friends in America. An European copy on the death of
the owner, having fallen into the hands of a Paris book
seller, he engaged a hireling translation, and sent it into
the world in the worst form possible. I never had
seen, says the author, * so wretched an attempt at trans
lation. Interverted, abridged, mutilated, and often re
versing the sense of the original, I found it a blotch of
errors from beginning to end. Under these circumstan
ces, he was urged in self defence to comply with the re
quest of a London bookseller to publish the English
original ; which he accordingly did. By this means, it
soon became the property of the public, and advanced
to a high degree of popularity. The work has since
been translated into all the principal tongues of Europe,
and ran through a large number of editions in England,
France,* and America.

Under the query relative to the several charters of th o
State, and its present form of government, Mr Jefferson
presents a compact statistical view of the colony, from
the first settlement under the grant of Queen Elizabeth,

* The celebrated Abbe Morellet published a translation of his
Notes, in 1786.

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 181

in 1584, down to the time at which he writes ; gives the
outlines of the existing constitution, and enumerates
what he considers its capital defects.

A brief notice of these defects, and the remedies
which he proposed, will explain more fully, as was prom
ised, the opinions of Mr Jefferson on the constitution of
Virginia, being the first republican charter ever known.
In the appendix to the volume under notice, is inserted a
new constitution, prepared by himself in 1783, when it
was expected the Assembly of Virginia would call a con
vention for remodelling the old one an event which he
long and vainly desired to see. This draught corre
sponds, in all its main features, with the one prepared by
him while in Congress, in 177C, and transmitted to the
convention in Virginia then sitting for that purpose,
though received too late to be adopted.

Among the palpable defects of the existing establish
ment, he enumerates : 1. The want of universal suffrage,
or rather such an extension of the elective franchise,
as would give a voice in the government to all those who
pay and fight for its support. This is the vital principle
of a pure democracy ; and Mr Jefferson appears to have
been the first politician of whom we have any informa
tion, who ventured forth publicly as its advocate. Pos
sessed of a large estate himself, and gratified with the
enjoyment of every honor, no personal ambition could
be supposed to enter into his motives, and his opinion
was received with great deference. The principle has
since been incorporated, with greater or less modifica
tions, into the constitutions of almost all the States.
The predominance of the landed influence, family aris~
tocracy, and a general repugnance to risking innova
tions, have hitherto retained the freehold qualification in
Virginia; though its rigor has been modified by recent
amendments. The success of the experiment, wherever
it has been tried, has abundantly tested the soundness of
the principle.

16*

182 LIFE OF

2. Inequality of representation. This deformity per
vaded the first republican charter of Virginia, to an as
tonishing degree. Mr Jefferson detects and exposes the
evil in a strong light, by a tabular statement of the rela
tive number of electors and representatives in each coun
ty ; and calls the attention of his countrymen to the sub
ject, in an impressive manner. According to his state
ment, the .county of Warwick, with only one hundred
electors, had an equal representation with the county of
Loudon, having 1700 electors ; and taking the State at
large, 19,000 men in one part, were enabled to give law
to upwards of 30,000 in the remaining part. This de
fect was remedied by the late revision of the constitution.
/ 3. The senate is necessarily too homogeneous with the
house of delegates. Being chosen by the same elec
tors, at the same time, and out of the same subjects, the
choice falls of course on the same description of men ;
defeating thereby the great purpose of establishing dif
ferent houses of legislation, which is to introduce the
influence of different interests or different principles.

4. The want of a sufficient barrier between the legis
lative, judiciary, and executive powers of the govern
ment. The concentration of these in the same hands
constituted, in his opinion, the precise definition of des
potism. By the constitution of Virginia, they all result
ed to the same body, the legislature, though they were
exercised by different bodies. He proclaims a solemn
warning against this heresy, and invokes an immediate
application of the remedy ; urging, that the time to
guard against corruption and tyranny, is before they
shall have seized the heads of the government, and been
spread by them through the body of the people.

5 and 6. Finally, as objections of the greatest magni
tude, Mr Jefferson argued that the constitution itself was
a mere legislative ordinance, enacted at a critical time
for a temporary purpose, not superior to the ordinary
legislature, but alterable by it ; and that the assembly,

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 183

possessing the right, as they did, of determining a quo
rum of their own body, might convert the government
into an absolute despotism at any moment, by consolida
ting its powers, and placing them in the hands of a sin
gle individual. To the joint operation of these two de
fects, aided by the inauspicious temper of the times, he
ascribed the infatuated attempt of the legislature, in
1776, repeated .in 81, to surrender the liberties of the
people into the hands of a dictator. He concludes his
remarks upon the constitution by a solemn appeal to the
people, for their speedy interposition.

Our situation is indeed perilous, and I hope my
countrymen will be sensible of it, and will apply, at a
proper season, the proper remedy; which is a conven
tion to fix the constitution, to amend its defects, to bind
up the several branches of government by certain Jaws,
which, when they transgress, their acts shall become
nullities ; to render unnecessary an appeal to the peo
ple, or in other words, a rebellion, on every infraction
of their rights, on the peril that their acquiescence shall
be construed into an intention to surrender those rights.

Under the enquiry concerning the administration of
justice, &c, the author presents a view of the judiciary
system of Virginia, framed, indeed, by himself, in 76
with a general description of the laws. He alludes to
the revised code, as a work which had been executed
by three gentlemen glances at the most important
reformations which it introduced, but carefully conceals
every circumstance which might indicate his participa
tion in that structure of republican jurisprudence. In
commenting upon the provisions recommended in this
code, for the future disposition of the blacks, the genius
of the author appears again in its favorite element. He
insists upon colonization to a distant country, as the
only safe and practicable mode of ultimate redemption ;
and urges strong reasons of policy as well as necessity
against their being retained in the State, and incorpo-

184 LIFE OF

rated among the race of whites. Deep-rooted preju
dices entertained by the whites ; ten thousand recollec
tions by the blacks, of the injuries they have sustained ;
new provocations ; the real distinctions which nature
has made ; and many other circumstances, will divide
us into parties, and produce convulsions, which will pro
bably never end, but in the extermination of the one or
the other race. To these distinctions, which are politi
cal, he adds many others, which are physical and moral.
But space is not allowed us to pursue the subject, or to
follow the author through his investigation of the ques
tion, whether the blacks and the Indians are inferior
races of beings to the whites. Making all due allow
ances for the difference of condition, education, &c, be
tween the blacks and whites, still the evidences were too
strong, in his opinion, not to admit doubts of the intel
lectual equality of the two species. Of the former,
many have been so situated that they might have availed
themselves of the conversation of their masters ; many
have been brought up to the handicraft arts, and from
that circumstance, have always been associated with the
whites. Some have been liberally educated, have lived
in countries where the arts and sciences are cultivated
to a high degree, and have had before their eyes, sam
ples of the best workmanship, and of the noblest intelli
gence. 4 But never yet, he adds, * could I find a black
that had uttered a thought above the level of plain nar
ration ; nor seen even an elementary trait of painting
or sculpture. Still, it was not against experience to
suppose, that different species of the same genus, or
varieties of the same species, might possess different
qualifications. The Indians, on the other hand, with
none of the advantages above named, will often carve
figures on their pipes, not destitute of design and merit.
They will crayon out an animal, a plant, or a country,
so as to prove the existence of a germ in their minds,
which only wants cultivation. They will astonish you

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 185

with strokes of the most sublime oratory, such as prove
their reason and sentiment strong, their imagination
glowing and elevated.

On the whole, therefore, he advanced it as his opin
ion, that the Indians are equal to the whites, in body
and mind ; and as a problem only, that the blacks, whe
ther originally a distinct race, or made so by time and
circumstances, are inferior to them. To justify a con
clusion, in the latter case, required observations which
eluded the research of all the senses ; it should, there
fore, be hazarded with extreme caution, especially when
such conclusion would degrade a whole race of men
from the rank in the scale of beings, which their Crea
tor may, perhaps, have assigned them. The difference
of color, feature, inclination, &c, is sufficient to warrant
the presumption, that they were designed for a separate
existence ; but it furnishes no evidence of the right to
enslave and torment them a,s mere brutes. * Will not a
lover of natural history then, he concludes, * one who
views the gradations in all the races of animals, with the
eye of philosophy, excuse an effort to keep these in the
department of man as distinct as nature has formed
them ?

The unhappy influence of slavery upon the manners
and morals of the people, is forcibly pourtrayed in a .
succeeding chapter.

6 The whole commerce between master and slave is a
perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the
most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrad
ing submission on the other. Our children see this, and
learn to imitate it ; for man is an imitative animal.
This quality is the germ of all education in him. From
his cradle to his grave he is learning to do what he sees
others do. If a parent could find no motive either in his
philanthropy or his self-love, for restraining the intem
perance of passion towards his slave, it should always
be a sufficient one that his child is present. But gener
ally it is not sufficient. The parent storms, the child

186 LIFE OF

looks on, catches the lineaments of wrath, puts on the
same airs in the circle of smaller slaves, gives a loose to
his worst passions, and thus nursed, educated, and daily
exercised in tyranny, cannot but be stamped by it with
odious peculiarities. The man must be a prodigy who
can retain his manners and morals undepraved by such
circumstances. And with what execration should the
statesman be loaded, who, permitting one half the
citizens thus to trample on the rights of the other, trans
forms those into despots, and these into enemies ; de
stroys the morals of the one part, and the love of country
of the other. For if a slave can have a country in this
world, it must be any other in preference to that in
which he is born to live and labor for another : in which
he must lock up the faculties of his nature, contribute as
far as depends on his individual endeavors to the evan-
ishment of the human race, or entail his own miserable
condition on the endless generations proceeding from
him.

The freedom of Mr Jefferson s strictures on slavery
and the constitution of Virginia, was the reason, it ap
pears, for his confining the work originally to his confi
dential friends. In his letters to them, accompanying
the gift of a copy, he uniformly explains the motives by
which he was actuated in restraining its circulation. In
presenting a copy of the work to General Chastellux,
he thus writes :

1 1 have been honored with the receipt of your letter
of the 2d instant, and am to thank you, as I do sincere
ly, for the partiality with which you receive the copy of
the Notes on my country. As I can answer for the
facts therein reported on my own observation, and have
admitted none on the report of others, which were not
supported by evidence sufficient to command my own
assent, I am not afraid that you should make any ex
tracts you please for the Journal de Physique, which
come within their plan of publication. The strictures
on slavery and on the constitution of Virginia, are not of
that kind, and they are the parts which I do not wish to
have made public, at least, till I know whether their

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 187

publication would do most harm or good. It is possible,
that in my oivn country, these strictures might produce an
irritation, which would indispose the people towards the two
great objects I have in view ; that is, the emancipation of
their slaves, and the settlement of their constitution on a
firmer and more permanent basis. If I learn from thence,
that they will not produce that effect, I have printed and
reserved just copies enough to be able to give one to
every young man at the college. It is to them I look,
to the rising generation, and not to the one now in
power, for these great reformations.

In transmitting copies to his friends in America, he
expresses the same lofty reasons ; of which the follow
ing, in a letter to Mr Monroe, is a sample.

4 1 send you by Mr Otto, a copy of my book. Be so
good as to apologize to Mr Thompson for my not send
ing him one by this conveyance. I could not burden
Mr Otto with more, on so long a road as that from
here to L Orient. I will send him one by a Mr Wil
liams, who will go ere long. I have taken measures to
prevent its publication. Sly reason is, that I fear the
terms in which I speak of slavery, and of our constitu
tion, may produce an irritation, which will revolt the
minds of our countrymen against reformation in these
two articles, and thus do more harm than good. I have
asked of Mr Madison to sound this matter as far as he
can, and if he thinks it will not produce that effect, I
have then copies enough printed to give one to each of
the young men at the college, and to my friends in the
country.

The remainder of this justly celebrated treatise, is
occupied with useful details and learned dissertations,
under the following heads of enquiry: The colleges,
public establishments, and mode of architecture in Vir
ginia The measures taken with regard to the estates
and possessions of tories during the war The different
religions received into the State The particular man
ners and customs of the people The present state of
manufactures, commerce, and agriculture The usual

188 LIFE OF

commodities of export and import The weights, mea
sures, and currency in hard money, with the rates of
exchange with Europe The public income and ex
penses The histories of the State, the memorials pub
lished under its name while a colony, and a chronologi
cal catalogue of its State papers since the commence
ment of the revolution.

Perhaps the most celebrated portion of the whole
work, is that which contains the opinions of the author
on the subject of FREE ENQUIRY in matters of religion.
The interest which all mankind feel on a point so vitally
connected with the policy of our. government, and the
freedom and happiness of its subjects, will justify a
liberal quotation here, in concluding our remarks upon
these invaluable Notes. TJie sentiments of the writer,
although generally esteemed heretical and well nigh
impious at the time, are now as generally reputed ortho
dox and unquestionable.

Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents
against error. Give a loose to them, they will support
the true religion, by bringing every false one to their
tribunal, and to the test of their investigation. They
are the natural enemies of error, and of error only.
Had not the Roman government permitted free inquiry,
Christianity could never have been introduced. Had
not free inquiry been indulged at the era of the refor
mation, the corruptions of Christianity could not have
been purged away. If it be restrained now, the present
corruptions will be protected, and new ones encouraged.
Was the government to prescribe to us our medicine and
diet, our bodies would be in such keeping as our souls
are now. Thus in France, the emetic was once forbid
den as a medicine, and the potatoe as an article of food.
Government is just as infallible too when it fixes systems
in physics. Galileo was sent to the inquisition for af
firming that the earth was a sphere : the government
had declared it to be as flat as a trencher, and Galileo
was obliged to abjure his error. This error, however, at
length prevailed, the earth became a globe, and Des-

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 189

cartes declared it was whirled round its axis by a vortex.
The government in which he lived was wise enough to
see, that this was no question of civil jurisdiction, or we
should all have been involved by authority in vortices.
In fact, the vortices have been exploded, and the New
tonian principle of gravitation is now more firmly es
tablished, on the basis of reason, than it would be were
the government to step in, and make it an article of ne
cessary faith. Reason and experiment have been indulg
ed, and error has fled before them. It is error alone
which needs the support of government. Truth can
stand by itself. Subject opinion to coercion : whom will
you make your inquisitors 1 Fallible men ; men govern
ed by bad passions, by private as well as public reasons.
And why subject it to coercion ? To produce uniformity.
But is uniformity of opinion desirable 1 No more than
of face and stature. Introduce the bed of Procrustes
then, and as there is danger that the great men may beat
the small, make us all of a size, by lopping the former
and stretching the latter. Difference of opinion is ad
vantageous in religion. The several sects perform the
office of a censor morum over each other. Is uniformity
attainable 1 Millions of innocent men, women and chil
dren, since the introduction of Christianity, have been
burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not
advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been
the effect of coercion 1 To make one half the world fools,
and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and
error all over the earth. Let us reflect that it is inhabited
by a thousand millions of people. That these profess,
probably, a thousand different systems of religion. That
ours is but one of that thousand. That if there be but
one right, and ours that one, we should wish to see the
nine hundred and ninety-nine wandering sects gathered
into the fold of truth. But against such a majority we
cannot effect this by force. Reason and persuasion are
the only practicable instruments. To make way for
these, free inquiry must be indulged ; how can we wish
others to indulge it while we refuse it ourselves.

On the 15th of June, 1781, Mr Jefferson was appoint
ed, with Mr Adams, Dr Franklin, Mr Jay, and Mr Lau-

17

190 LIFE OP

rens, a minister plenipotentiary for negotiating peace,
then expected to be effected through the mediation of
the empress of Russia. The same reasons, however,
which induced him to decline a foreign station in 76 5
constrained him on the present occasion, to plead his
excuse with Congress and entreat permission to remain
at home. * Such was the state of my family, says he,
that I could not leave it, nor could I expose it to the
dangers of the sea, and of capture by the British ships,
then covering the ocean. This restraint released him
from the meditated embassy ; and the negotiation in fact
was never entered on.

So imperfect is the light thrown on the private history
of Mr Jefferson, that it was not thought proper to inter
rupt the narrative of his public career, for those general
facts only of a domestic character, which are incorpo
rated in his recent auto-biography. He was married on
the first of January, 1772, to Mrs Martha Skelton, widow
of Bathurst Skelton, then twenty-three years of age.
She was the daughter of John Wayles, a lawyer of ex
tensive practice, to which he had been introduced, more
by his great industry, punctuality, and practical readi
ness, than by any eminence in the science of his pro
fession. He is represented to have been a most agreea
ble companion, full of pleasantry and good humor,
which gave him a happy welcome into every society.
He acquired an immense fortune by his practice at the
bar, and died in May, 1773, leaving three daughters.
The portion which fell, on that event, to Mrs Jefferson,
was about equal to his own patrimony, and consequently
doubled the affluence of their circumstances.

At the period of which we have been speaking, he had
three daughters ; in the education of whom, according to
his own ideas, he carried into practical exercise all that
enthusiasm, which had distinguished his public labors.
With a mind attuned to all those endearments which
make up the measure of domestic felicity, with a wife

THOMAS JEFFERSON. - 191

no less adapted to multiply and augment those endear
ments to the full extent of which they are susceptible,
with an uncommon passion for philosophy and the pur
suits of agriculture, it is not surprising he should have
preferred, as he afterwards declared, the woods, the
wilds, arid the independence of Monticello, to all the
brilliant pleasures of the most brilliant court in Europe.
It was to him, therefore, a luxury, and one which he had
not been permitted to enjoy since the commencement of
the revolution, to pass, as he did, the remainder of the
year 81, and a considerable part of the succeeding, in
the pleasures and pursuits of domestic retirement. With
the cares of his family, his books, and his farm, he min
gled the gratification of his devotion to the fine arts, par
ticularly architecture. He superintended minutely the
construction of his elegant mansion, which had been
commenced some years before, and was already in a
habitable condition. The plan of the building was en
tirely original in this country. He had drawn it himself
from books, with a view to improve the architecture of
his countrymen by introducing an example of the taste
and the arts of Europe. The original structure, which
was executed before his travels in Europe had supplied
him with any models, is allowed by European travellers
to have been infinitely superior in taste and convenience,
to that of any other house at this time in America. * The
fame of the Monticellian philosopher having already
spread over Europe, his hospitable seat was made the
resort of scientific adventurers and of travellers, from
many parts of that continent.

It may not be unsatisfactory to the reader, to have a
picture of the patriot in his hermitage, as he appeared
to the celebrated French traveller, General Chastellux :
Let me describe to you a man, not yet forty; tall, and

* See Travels of Duke de La Rochefoucault Liancourt, in Ame
rica ; also, the Travels of Marquis de Chastellux

192 LIFE OF

with a mild and pleasing countenance, but whose mind
and understanding are ample substitutes for every exte
rior grace An American, who, without ever having
quitted his own country, is at once a musician, skilled in
drawing, a geometrician, an astronomer, a natural philo
sopher, legislator, and statesman A senator of Amer
ica, who sat for two years in that famous Congress, which
brought about the revolution ; and which is never men
tioned without respect, though unhappily not without
regret A governor of Virginia, who filled this difficult
station during the invasions of Arnold, of Phillips, and
of Cornwallis A philosopher, in voluntary retirement
from the world and public business, because he loves the
world inasmuch only, as he can flatter himself with being
useful to mankind ; and the minds of his countrymen are
not yet in a condition either to bear the light, or to suf
fer contradiction A mild and amiable wife, charming
children, of whose education he himself takes charge, a
house to embellish, great provisions, and the arts and
sciences to cultivate; these are what remain to Mr
Jefferson, after having played a principal character on
the theatre of the new world, and which he preferred to
the honorable commission of minister plenipotentiary in
Europe.

In the autumn of 82, assurances having been received
from the British government that a general peace would
be concluded in the ensuing winter or spring, Congress
renewed the appointment of their plenipotentiaries for
that purpose. A great and afflicting change had, at this
time, taken place in the domestic relations of Mr Jef-
fersoii ; and the reasons which before operated impera
tively against his acceptance of the mission, were sud
denly superseded by others as imperatively urging his
absence from the seat of his dearest and most hallowed
ties. The appointment was made on the 13th of No
vember. I had, two months before that, says he, lost

THOMAS JEFFERSON.

193

the cherished companion of my life, in whose affections,
unabated on both sides, I had lived the last ten years, in
unchequered happiness. With the public interests, there
fore, the state of his mind concurred in recommending
the change of scene proposed; and he accepted the ap
pointment.

He left Monticello on the 19th of December, 82, for
Philadelphia, where he arrived on the 27th. The min
ister of France, Luzerne, offered him a passage in the
frigate Romulus, which he accepted ; but she was then
lying a few miles below Baltimore, blockaded by ice.
No other conveyance being available, he remained in
Philadelphia a month. On his arrival, Congress had
passed an order offering him free access to the archives
of the government ; and he improved his leisure by a
constant and daily attendance at the office of State, ex
amining the public papers, to possess himself thoroughly
of the state of our foreign affairs. He then proceeded
to Baltimore, to await the liberation of the French fri
gate from the ice. After being detained there nearly a
month longer, information was received that a provision
al-treaty of peace had been signed by those of the com
missioners* who were on the spot, on the 3d of September,
82 ; which treaty was to become absolute on the conclu
sion of peace between France and Great Britain. Con
sidering the object of his mission to Europe as now ac
complished, he repaired immediately to Philadelphia to
take the orders of Congress ; and was excused by them
from farther proceeding. He therefore returned home,
where he arrived on the 15th of May, 83.

The appointment and re-appointment of Mr Jefferson
to the embassy which resulted in the negotiation of the
definitive treaty of peace with Great Britain, though but
a fair tribute to his revolutionary services, have never
been associated in history with that important event.

* John Adams, Dr Franklin, John Jay, and Henry Laurens.
17*

194 LIFE OF

The circumstances above detailed, alone prevented the
addition of his signature to the treaty, which would ne
cessarily have given the same honorable notoriety to his
connection with the transaction, as is attached to his
associate commissioners.

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 195

CHAPTER VIII.

ON the 6th of June, 1783, Mr Jefferson, whose capa
bilities were never overlooked, was re-elected by the le
gislature to his ancient station of delegate to Congress.
His appointment was to take effect on the 1st of Novem
ber ensuing, when the term of the existing delegation
would have expired. He left home on the 16th of Oc
tober, arrived at Trenton where Congress was sitting,
on the 3d of November, and took his seat on the 4th ;
on which day Congress adjourned, to meet at Annapolis
on the 26th.

Congress convened at Annapolis on the 26th of No
vember, agreeably to adjournment ; but the pressure of
public affairs having relaxed, the members had become
proportionally remiss in their attendance, insomuch that
a majority of the States necessary by the confederation
to constitute a quorum, even for minor business, did not
assemble until the 13th of December.

On the 19th of the same month, the great conflict be
ing over, and our national independence acknowledged
by Great Britain, the illustrious general in chief of the
American army requested permission of Congress to re
sign his commission ; and with the deference ever paid
by him to the civil authority, desired to know their pleas
ure in what manner the grateful duty should be per
formed.

Congress decreed that the commission should be de
livered up at a PUBLIC AUDIENCE, on the 23d of Decem-

196 LIFE, OF

her, at twelve o clock ; and suitable arrangements were
ordered for the occasion. The character sustained by
Mr Jefferson in this affecting scene, will justify a general
description of the circumstances.

When the hour arrived for the performance of the
ceremony, the galleries were overloaded with spectators;
and many distinguished individuals, among whom were
the executive and legislative characters of the States,
several general officers, and the consul general of France,
were admitted on the floor of Congress. From the first
moment of peace, the public mind had been fixed intent
ly upon General Washington. He stood on the pinnacle
of military fame and power ; but his ambition was satis
fied, for the liberties of his country had been gained ;
and his admiring fellow citizens were now assembled to
witness the execution of a purpose, deliberately and
warmly embraced, of leaving to the world a great and
solemn example of moderation.

The representatives of the people of the union re
mained seated and covered ; the spectators standing and
uncovered. The general was introduced by the secreta
ry, and conducted to a chair near the president of Con
gress. After a proper interval, silence was commanded,
and a short pause ensued. The president, general Mif-
flin, then rose and informed him that the United States in
Congress assembled, were prepared to receive his com
munications. Washington rose, and with a native dig
nity, delivered his affectionate address and valedictory.

Having then advanced to the chair and delivered his
commission to the president, he returned to his place,
and received standing the following answer of the presi
dent in the name of Congress. This paper was prepar
ed by Mr Jefferson.

Sir, The United States in Congress assembled, re
ceive with emotions too affecting for utterance, the sol
emn resignation of the authorities under which you have
led their troops with success through a perilous and

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 197

doubtful war. Called upon by your country to defend
its invaded rights, you accepted the sacred charge, be
fore it had formed alliances, and whilst it was without
funds, or a government to support you. You have con
ducted the great military contest with wisdom and forti
tude, invariably regarding the rights of the civil power
through all disasters and changes. You have, by the
love and confidence of your fellow-citizens, enabled them
to display their martial genius, and transmit their fame
to posterity. You have persevered, till these United
States, aided by a magnanimous king and nation, have
been enabled, under a just providence, to close the war
in freedom, safety and independence ; on which happy
event, we sincerely join you in congratulations.

* Having defended the standard of liberty in this new
world ; having taught a lesson useful to those who in
flict, and to those who feel oppression, you retire from
the great theatre of action, with the blessings of your
fellow citizens but the glory of your virtues will not
terminate with your military command, it will continue
to animate remotest ages.

1 We feel with you our obligations to the army in gen
eral, and will particularly charge ourselves with the in
terests of those confidential officers, who have attended
your person to this affecting moment.

We join you in commending the interests of our dear
est country to the protection of Almighty God, beseech
ing Him to dispose the hearts and minds of its citizens,
to improve the opportunity afforded them, of becoming
a happy and respectable nation. And for you we ad
dress to Him our earnest prayers, that a life so beloved,
may be fostered with all His care ; that your days may
be happy as they have been illustrious ; and that He will
finally give you that reward which this world cannot
give.

On the same day, December 23d, measures were ta
ken for ratifying the definitive treaty of peace, which
had been signed at Paris on the 3d of ^September, 1783,
and received here in November following. The treaty,
with the joint letter of the American plenipotentiaries,
was referred to a committee, of which Mr Jefferson was

198 LIFE OF

chairman, to consider and report thereon. The necessa
ry house not being present, the committee were directed
to address letters to the governors of the absent States
stating the receipt of the definitive treaty ; that seven
States only were in attendance, while nine were essen
tial to its ratification ; and urging them to press on their
delegates the necessity of an immediate attendance.

Meanwhile, the house being restless under the delay,
the opinion was advanced by several members that
seven States were competent to confirm treaties ; and
a motion was accordingly made for an immediate rati
fication. Mr Jefferson adhered to the strict letter of the
confederation, against the constructive opinion, and op
posed the motion. It was debated with considerable
warmth, on the 26th and 27th. No traces of the pro
ceedings, however, appear in the journals of Congress.
It being made palpable, in the course of the debates,
that the proposition could not be sustained, it was de
cided to make no entry at all. Massachusetts alone
would have voted for it ; Rhode-Island, Pennsylvania
and Virginia against it ; Delaware, Maryland and North
Carolina would have been divided.

In embodying his recollections of these transactions,
in 1821, Mr Jefferson improved the occasion to record a
severe but merited censure on the general character and
conduct of our congressional bodies.

Our body was little numerous, but very contentious.
Day after day was wasted on the most unimportant
questions. A member, one of those afflicted with the
morbid rage of debate, of an ardent mind, prompt ima
gination, and copious flow of words, who heard with
impatience any logic which was not his own, sitting
near me on some occasion of a trifling but wordy de
bate, asked me how I could sit in silence, hearing so
much false reasoning, which a word should refute 1 I
observed to him, that to refute indeed was easy, but to
silence impossible ; that in measures brought forward by
myself, I took the laboring oar, as was incumbent on

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 199

me ; but that in general, I was willing to listen ; that if
every sound argument or objection was used by some
one or other of the numerous debaters, it was enough ;
if not, I thought it sufficient to suggest the omission,
without going into a repetition of what had been al
ready said by others : that this was a waste and abuse
of the time and patience of the house, which could not
be justified. And I believe, that if the members of de
liberate bodies were to observe this course generally,
they would do in a day, what takes them a week ; and
it is really more questionable, than may at first be
thought, whether Bonaparte s dumb legislature, which
said nothing, and did much, may not be preferable to
one which talks much, and does nothing. I served
with general Washington in the legislature of Virginia,
before the revolution, and, during it, with Dr Franklin
in Congress. I never heard either of them speak ten
minutes at a time, nor to any but the main point, which
was to decide the question. They laid their shoulders
to the great points, knowing that the little ones would
follow of themselves. If the present Congress errs in
too much talking, how can it be otherwise, in a body to
which the people send one hundred and fifty lawyers,
whose trade it is, to question every thing, yield nothing,
and talk by the hour ? That one hundred and fifty
lawyers should do business together, ought not to be ex
pected.

Those who thought seven States competent to the
ratification, being very uneasy under the loss of their
motion, Mr Jefferson proposed, on the 3d of January,
to meet them on the middle ground ; and accordingly
moved a resolution, premising that there were but seven
States present, who were unanimous for the ratification,
but differed in opinion on the question of competency,
that those however in the negative were unwilling that
any powers which it might be supposed they possessed,
should remain unexercised for the restoration of peace,
provided it could be done saving their good faith, and
without any opinion of Congress that seven States were
competent ; and resolving, that the treaty be ratified so

200 LIFE OF

far as they had power ; that it should be transmitted to
our ministers, with instructions to keep it uncommuni-
cated ; that they should endeavor to obtain three months
longer for exchange of ratifications ; that, so soon as nine
States shall be present, a ratification by nine shall be
sent them ; if this should get to them before the ultimate
point of time for exchange, they were to use it, and not
the other ; if not, they were to offer the act of the seven
States in exchange, stating that the treaty had come to
hand while Congress was not in session, that but seven
States were as yet assembled, and these had unanimously
concurred in the ratification. This resolution was de
bated on the 3d and 4th of January ; and on the 5th,
the question being carried, the house directed the pres
ident to write to our ministers accordingly.

On the 14th of January, delegates from Connecticut
and South Carolina having arrived, the necessary com
plement of States was in attendance ; and on report of
Mr Jefferson in behalf of the committee, the definitive
treaty of peace between the United States and Great
Britain, was solemnly ratified and confirmed, without a
dissenting voice.

The act by which Mr Jefferson chiefly distinguished
himself, in his second congressional course, was the es
tablishment of a money unit, and a uniform system of
currency, for the United States. The interesting fact is
not generally known in this country, that Mr Jefferson
was the father of the present admirable system of coin
age and currency. In the volumes which have been
written on this great man, no allusion to the circum
stance has ever appeared ; and yet, it is one of the no
blest commentaries on the versatility of his powers.
The historical circumstances attending the preparation
and final adoption of his scheme are of some curiosity,
as showing the disparity of views which prevailed on the
subject.

Early in January, 1782, Congress had turned their at-

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 204

tention to the variety and discordancy of moneys current
in the several States ; and had directed their financier,
Robert Morris, to report to them a table of the different
currencies, and of the rates at which foreign coins should
be received at the treasury. That officer, or rather his
assistant, Governeur Morris, answered them the same
month, in an able and elaborate statement of the denom
inations of money current in the several States, and of
the comparative value of the foreign coins chiefly in cir
culation among us. He went also into the consideration
of the necessity of establishing a fixed standard of value
with us, and of adopting a money unit. He proposed
for that unit, such a fraction of pure silver as would be
a common measure of the penny of every State, without
leaving a fraction. This common divisor he found to be
TiV^ f a dollar, or T ^V(T f a crown sterling. The
value of a dollar, therefore, was to be expressed by 1440
units, and of a crown by 1600 ; each unit containing a
quarter of a grain of fine silver. The following year,
1783, Congress again turned their attention to the sub
ject, and the financier, by a letter of April 30, farther
explained his idea, and urged the unit he had proposed ;
but nothing more was done on it until the early part of
the ensuing year, 84, when, Mr Jefferson having become
a member, the subject was referred to a committee, of
which he was made chairman.

The general views of the financier, were sound, says
he, * and the principle was ingenious, on which he pro
posed to found his unit ; but it was too minute for ordi
nary use, too laborious for computation, either by head
or in figures. The price of a loaf of bread, ^ of a
dollar, would be 72 units. A pound of butter, of a
dollar, 288 units. A horse or bullock, of eighty dollars
value, would require a notation of six figures, to wit,
115,200, and the public debt, suppose of eighty millions,
would require twelve figures, to wit, 115,200,000,000
units. Such a system of money arithmetic would be
entirely unmanagable for the common purposes of so-
18

202 LIFE OP

ciety. I proposed, therefore, instead of this, to adopt
the dollar as our unit of account and payment, and that
its divisions and subdivisions should be in the decimal
ratio. I wrote some notes on the subject, which I sub
mitted to the consideration of the financier. I received
his answer and adherence to his general system, only
agreeing to take for his unit one hundred of those he
first proposed, so that a dollar should be 14^% and a
crown 16 units. I replied to this, and printed my notes
and reply on a flying sheet, which I put into the hands
of the members of Congress for consideration, and the
committee agreed to report on my principle. This was
adopted the ensuing year, and is the system which now
prevails.

The money system recommended by Mr Jefferson,
and adopted by Congress in 1785, has almost entirely
superseded the various and perplexing currencies which
formerly prevailed in the different States, and establish
ed a uniformity of computation among them. For
soundness and simplicity, easy computation, and facility
of introduction among the people, it is probably unequal
led by any system now in use in any other nation. A
tolerable estimate of its advantages over the currencies
of other States, may be formed on an examination of
the views of the author, as drafted by himself at the
time, and submitted to the consideration of the com
mittee.

As might be expected, the return to the national coun
cils, of so distinguished a man as Mr Jeffers-on, drew
upon him an unusual proportion of public business.
The journals of the house place him continually in the
foreground of the concentrated wisdom of the nation.
He was on all the committees, to whom concerns of the
highest moment were entrusted ; and was twice in one
month elected chairman of Congress, during the absence,
from indisposition, of the president.

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 203

He was appointed chairman of a grand committee to
revise the institution of the treasury department, and
report such alterations as they should deem proper.
The business of this committee was emphatically, to re
duce order out of chaos. The finances of the country
were in a most deplorable condition. No adequate sys
tem had been devised for meeting the constant and in
creasing requisitions upon the treasury. And no com
pulsory power existed in Congress, over the States ; many
of whom being dissatisfied with their quotas, refused to
contribute altogether, and none appeared to have the
means at command for satisfying the demands made
upon them. The peace and harmony of the union were
manifestly in danger. Mr Jefferson entered upon the
arduous trust with great zeal and fidelity, and draughted
an able report on the subject, in the form of a circular
letter to the supreme executive of the several States;
which report was unanimously adopted. He likewise
reported from the same committee, the draught of an
ordinance for erecting the department of finance into
commission, under the title of The Board of Treasury,
which was adopted.

He was appointed chairman of a committee to pre
pare and report to Congress, the arrears of interest on
the national debt, with the interest and expenses of the
current year ; and to adjust an equitable apportionment
of the whole demand among the several States. He
drew the report of the committee. It was an elaborate
performance, embracing a full and comprehensive re
view of the various debts of the union, the interest due
thereon, with the expenses of the current year, arid ex
hibiting by a table annexed, an apportionment of the
necessary requisitions upon the several States, for de
fraying the amount. The report was accepted, and
passed.

He was appointed chairman of a committee to devise
and report a plan of government for the western terri-

204 LIFE OF

tories. He drew the ordinance, on a principle analo
gous to the State governments, and reported it to the
house, where, after going through the ordinary course,
it was adopted with few alterations. He improved the
occasion to testify, once more, his abhorrence of slavery,
by introducing into his plan the following provision :
That after the year 1800 of the Christian era, there
shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in any
of the States, otherwise than in punishment of crimes,
whereof the party shall have been duly convicted to have
been personally guilty. But the clause was stricken out
by Congress, as well as another, which provided that no
person should be admitted a citizen, who held any hered
itary title.

He was appointed on a committee of retrenchment, to
consider and report what reductions might be made in
the civil list. On the report of this committee, such a
reduction was ordered, by suppressing unnecessary offi
ces and diminishing the salaries of others, as produced
an annual saving to the United States of 24,000 dollars.

He was made chairman of a committee- ..tQ..SttIe the
mode of locating and disposing lands in the western ter
ritory. He prepared the report of the committee, which
was adopted. It established the mode of proceeding on
this subject, which has hitherto been pursued with little
variation.

By the confederation, exclusive power over the regu
lation of commerce, even by treaty, was not given to
Congress ; but the right was reserved to the State legis
latures, of imposing such duties on foreigners, as their
own people were subjected to, and of prohibiting the
exportation and importation of any species of goods,
within their respective ports. The inconveniences of
fhis arrangement were speedily felt, to an alarming de
gree. Great Britain had already adopted regulations
destructive of our commerce with her West India islands ;
and unless the United States, in their federative capacity,

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 205

were invested with powers competent to the protection
of their commerce, by countervailing regulations, it was
obvious they could never command reciprocal advantages
in trade ; without which their foreign commerce must
decline, and eventually be annihilated. A committee
was therefore appointed, of which Mr Jefferson was a
member, to institute measures for transferring the prin
cipal jurisdiction of commerce, from the States to the
national tribunal. They reported resolutions recom
mending the legislatures of the several States to invest
the federal government, for the term of fifteen years,
with the power to interdict from our ports the commerce
of any nation, with whom the United States shall not
have established treaties. The report was accepted, and
the resolutions passed.

AH these important transactions, with many others, in
which Mr Jefferson had a leading agency, were accom
plished during the winter and spring of 1784, the whole
term of his second congressional service.

During the same term, he submitted a proposition,
which embraced a double object to invigorate the gov
ernment and reduce its expense. The permanent ses
sion of Congress, and the remissness of the members,
had begun to be subjects of uneasiness through the coun
try; and even some of the legislatures had recommended
to them intermissions and periodical sessions. But the
government was not yet organized into separate depart
ments ; there was no distinct executive, nor had the con
federation made provision for a visible head of affairs
during vacations of Congress. Such a head was neces
sary, however, to superintend the executive business, to
receive and communicate with foreign ministers and na
tions, and to assemble Congress on sudden and extraor
dinary emergencies. Mr Jefferson, therefore, proposed
the appointment of an executive board, to consist of one
member from each State, who should remain in session
during the recess of Congress, under the title of Com-
18*

206 LIFE OF

mittee of the States. The powers of this plural execu
tive, were to embrace all the executive functions of Con
gress, which should not be specially reserved, but none
of the legislative ; the concurrence of nine members
should be required to determine all questions, except
that of adjournment from day to day ; they should keep
a journal of their proceedings to be laid before Congress,
whom they should also be empowered to assemble, on
any occurrence during the recess in which the peace or
happiness of the United States might be involved.

The proposition was adopted, and a committee of the
States appointed. On the adjournment of Congress, in
June following, they entered upon their duties, but in
the course of two months, quarrelled among themselves,
divided into two parties, abandoned their post, and left
the government without any visible head until the next
meeting of Congress. The scheme was found to be an
impracticable one, though it was the best within the au
thority of Congress at that time to adopt. And on the
whole, it was a happy circumstance for our republic,
that the theory proved as impracticable as it did ; for it
developed, in a clear light, the palpable defect of the
confederation, in not having provided for a separation of
the legislative, executive, and judiciary functions ; and
this defect, together with the want of adequate powers
in the general government to collect their contributions
and to regulate commerce, was the great cause which
led to the formation and adoption of our present consti
tution.

Mr Jefferson has left a brief reminiscence of his sen
timents, and of an amusing interview with Dr Franklin,
on learning the sudden rupture and dispersion of the
new executive chiefs.

4 We have since seen the same thing take place, in the
directory of France ; and I believe it will forever take
place in any executive consisting of a plurality. Our plan,
I believe, best, combines wisdom and practicability, by

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 207

providing a plurality of councillors, but a single arbiter
for ultimate decision. I was in France when we heard
of this schism and separation of our committee, and,
speaking with Dr Franklin of this singular disposition
of men to quarrel, and divide into parties, he gave his
sentiments, as usual, by way of apologue. He mentioned
the Eddystone light-house, in the British channel, as
being built on a rock, in the mid-channel, totally inac
cessible in winter, from the boisterous character of that
sea, in that season ; that, therefore, for the two keepers
employed to keep up the lights, all provisions for the
winter were necessarily carried to them in autumn, as
they could never be visited again till the return of the
milder season ; that, on the first practicable day in the
spring, a boat put oflf to them with fresh supplies. The
boatmen met at the door one of the keepers, and accost
ed him with a "How goes it, friend?" "Very well."
" How is your companion ?" " I do not know." "Don t
know?" "Is not he here?" " I can t tell." "Have
not you seen him to-day ?" " No." " When did you
see him ?" " Not since last fall." " You have killed
him ?" " Not I, indeed." They were about to lay hold
of him, as having certainly murdered his companion ;
but he desired them to go up stairs and examine for them
selves. They went up, and there found the other keep
er. They had quarrelled, it seems, soon after being left
there, had divided into two parties, assigned the cares
below to one, and those above to the other, and had never
spoken to, or seen, one another since.

While in Congress, at Annapolis, Mr Jefferson receiv
ed an urgent letter from General Washington, requesting
his opinions on the institution of the Cincinnati, and on
the conduct most proper for him. to pursue in relation to
it. The origin of this institution was perfectly inno
cent ; but its anti-republican organization and tendency
soon excited a heavy solicitude in the breasts of the more
sensitive guardians of liberty, which at length* broke
forth in accents of loud and extensive disapprobation.
The idea of this society was suggested by General Knox,
and finally matured into a regular association of all the

208

LIFE OP

officers of the American army, to continue during their
lives, and those of their eldest male posterity, or in fail
ure thereof, any collateral branches who might be judged
worthy admission, with power to incorporate, as honor
ary members for life, individuals of the respective States,
distinguished for their patriotism and abilities. The
laws of the association farther provided for periodical
meetings, general and particular, fixed contributions for
such of the members as might be in distress, and a badge
to be worn by them, and presented by a special envoy,
to the French officers who had served in the United
States, who were to be invited to consider themselves as
belonging to the society ; at the head of which the com
mander in chief was unanimously designated to take
his place.

General Washington saw with pain the uneasiness of
the public mind under this institution, and appealed to
Mr Jefferson for his advice on the most eligible measures
to be pursued at the next meeting. The answer of Mr
Jefferson, as it probably decided the future destinies of
this famous institution, is \vorthy of being preserved. It
is dated Annapolis, April 16, 1784.

* I received your favor of April the 8th, by Colonel
Harrison. The subject of it is interesting, and, so far
as you have stood connected with it, has been matter of
anxiety to me ; because, whatever may be the ultimate
fate of the institution of the Cincinnati, as, in its course,
it draws to it some degree of disapprobation, I have
wished to see you standing on ground separated from it,
that the character which will be handed to future ages,
of the head of our revolution, may, in no instance, be
compromitted in subordinate altercations. The subject
has been at the point of my pen in every letter I have
written to you, but has been still restrained by the reflec
tion that you had among your friends more able coun
sellors, and, in yourself, one abler than them all. Your
letter has now rendered a duty what was before a desire,
and I cannot better merit your confidence than by a full

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 209

and free communication of facts and sentiments, as far
as they have come within my observation. When the
army was about to be disbanded, arid the officers to take
final leave, perhaps never again to meet, it was natural
for men who had accompanied each other through so
many scenes of hardship, of difficulty and danger, who,
in a variety of instances, must have been rendered mu
tually dear by those aids and good offices, to which their
situations had given occasion, it was natural, I say, for
these to seize with fondness any proposition which pro
mised to bring them together again, at certain and regu
lar periods. And this, I take for granted, was the ori
gin and object of this institution : and I have no sus
picion that they foresaw, much less intended, those mis
chiefs which exist perhaps in the forebodings of poli
ticians only. I doubt, however, whether in its execu
tion, it would be found to answer the wishes of those
who framed it, and to foster those friendships it was
intended to preserve. The members would be brought
together at their annual assemblies no longer to encoun
ter a common enemy, but to encounter one another in
debate and sentiment. For something, I suppose, is to
be done at these meetings, and, however unimportant, it
will suffice to produce difference of opinion, contradic
tion, and irritation. The way to make friends quarrel
is to put them in disputation under the public eye. An
experience of near twenty years has taught me, that few
friendships stand this test, and that public assemblies
where every one is free to act and speak, are the most
powerful looseners of the bands of private friendship. I
think, therefore, that this institution would fail in its
principal object, the perpetuation of the personal friend
ships contracted through the war.

The objections of those who are opposed to the
institution shall be briefly sketched. You will readily
fill them up. They urge that it is against the confeder
ation against the letter of some of our constitutions
against the spirit of all of them; that the foundation
on which all these are built, is the natural equality of
man, the denial of every pre-eminence but that annexed
to legal office, and, particularly, the denial of a pre
eminence by birth ; that however, in their present dis-

210 LIFE OF

positions, citizens might decline accepting honorary
instalments into the order ; but a time may come, when
a change of dispositions would render these flattering,
when a well directed distribution of them might draw
into the order all the men of talents, of office, and
wealth ; and in this case, would probably procure an
ingraftment into the government ; that in this, they will
be supported by their foreign members, and the wishes
and influence of foreign courts; that experience has
shown that the hereditary branches of modern govern
ments are the patrons of privilege and prerogative, and
not of the natural rights of the people, whose oppressors
they generally are: that besides these evils, which are
remote, others may take place more immediately ; that
a distinction is kept up between the civil and military,
which it is for the happiness of both to obliterate ; that
when the members assemble they will be proposing to do
something, and what that something may be, will depend
on actual circumstances ; that being an organized body,
under habits of subordination, the first obstruction to
enterprise will be already surmounted ; that the modera
tion and virtue of a single character have probably pre
vented this revolution from being closed as most others
have been, by a subversion of that liberty it was intended
to establish ; that he is not immortal, and his successor,
or some of his successors, may be led by false calcula
tions into a less certain road to glory.

* This, Sir, is as faithful an account of sentiments and
facts as I am able to give you. You know the extent of
the circle within which my observations are at present
circumscribed, and can estimate how far, as forming a
part of the general opinion, it may merit notice, or
ought to influence your particular conduct.

It now remains to pay obedience to that part of your
letter which requests sentiments on the most eligible
measures to be pursued by the society, at their next
meeting. I must be far from pretending to be a judge
of what would, in fact, be the most eligible measures for
the society. I can only give you the opinions of those
with whom I have conversed, and who, as I have before
observed, are unfriendly to it. They lead to these con
clusions. 1. If the society proceed according to its

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 211

institution, it will be better to make no application to
Congress on that subject, or any other, in their associated
character. 2. If they should propose to modify it, so as
to render it unobjectionable, I think it would not be
effected without such a modification as would amount
almost to annihilation : for such would it be to part with
its inheritability, its organization, and its assemblies. 3.
If they shall be disposed to discontinue the whole, it
would remain with them to determine whether they
would choose it to be done by their own act only, or by
a reference of the matter to Congress, which would infal
libly produce a recommendation of total discontinuance.
4 You will be sensible, Sir, that these communications
are without reserve. I supposed such to be your wish,
and mean them but as materials, with such others as you
may collect, for your better judgment to work on. I
consider the whole matter as between ourselves alone,
having determined to take no active part in this or any
thing else, which may lead to altercation, or disturb that
quiet and tranquillity of mind, to which I consign the
remaining portion of my life. I have been thrown back
by events, on a stage where I had never more thought
to appear. It i^but for a time, however, and as a day-
laborer, free to withdraw, or be withdrawn at will.
While I remain, I shall pursue in silence the path of
right, but in every situation, public or private, I shall be
gratified by all occasions of rendering you service, and
of convincing you there is no one, to whom your reputa
tion and happiness are dearer than to, Sir, your most
obedient and most humble servant.

The sentiments of Mr Jefferson on the subject of the
Cincinnati* were the sentiments of a majority of the
members of Congress ; and they soon animated the .
mass of the people. General Washington was oppressed
with solicitude ; he weighed the considerations submitted
to him, with intense deliberation ; and although con
scious of the purity of the motives in which the institu
tion originated, he became sensible that it might produce
political evils, which the warmth of those motives had
disguised. But whether so or not, the fact that a ma-

212 LIFE OF

jority of the people were opposed to it, was a sufficient
motive with him for desiring its immediate suppression.
The first annual meeting was to be held in May ensuing,
at Philadelphia ; it was now at hand ; and he went to
it with the determination to exert all his influence for its
annihilation. He proposed the matter to his fellow-
officers, arid urged it with all his powers. It met with
an opposition, says Mr Jefferson, which was observed
to cloud his face with an anxiety, that the most distress
ful scenes of the war had scarcely ever produced. The
question of dissolution was canvassed for several days,
and, at length, the order was on the point of receiving
its annihilation, by the vote of a great majority of its
members. At this moment, their envoy arrived from
France, charged with letters from the French officers,
accepting cordially the proposed badges of fellowship,
with solicitations from others to be received into the
order, and the recognition of their magnanimous sove
reign. The prospect was now changed. The question
assumed a new form. After an offer ^nade by them
selves, and accepted by their friends, in what words
could they clothe a proposition to retract it, which would
not cover themselves with the reproaches of levity and
ingratitude ? which would not appear an insult to those
whom they loved ? They found it necessary, therefore,
to preserve so much of the institution, as would support
the foreign branch ; but they obliterated every feature
which was calculated to give offence to their own citi
zens ; thus sacrificing, on either hand, to their brave
allies, and to their country.

The society was to retain its existence, its name, and its
charitable funds ; these last, however, were to be deposit
ed with their respective legislatures. The order was to
be communicated to no new members. The general meet
ings, instead of annual, were to be triennial only. The
eagle and ribbon, indeed, were retained ; because they

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 213

were willing they should be worn by their friends in
France, where they would not be objects of offence ; but
they were never worn here. They laid them up in
their bureaus, with the medals of American Independ
ence, with those of the trophies they had taken, and the
battles they had won. 7

On the 7th of May, Congress resolved that a minister
plenipotentiary should be appointed, in addition to Dr
Franklin and Mr Adams, already in Europe, for nego- |
tiating treaties of commerce with foreign nations ; and
Mr Jefferson was unanimously elected.

The charge confided to this legation, comprehended
all our foreign relations ; the adjustment of which, upon
a firm and equitable basis, was evidently an undertaking
of uncommon magnitude, difficulty and delicacy. It was
the great object of Congress in the appointment of these
ambassadors, to get our commerce established with every
nation, on a footing as favorable as that of any other
government ; and, for this purpose, they were directed
to propose to each nation a distinct treaty of commerce.
The acceptance too, of such treaties, would amount to
an acknowledgment, by each, of our independence, and
of our reception into the fraternity of nations ; which,
says Mr Jefferson, although as possessing our station
of right, and in fact, we would not condescend to ask,
we were not unwilling to furnish opportunities for re
ceiving their friendly salutations and welcome. With
France, the United Netherlands and Sweden, the United
States already had commercial treaties ; but commissions
were given for those countries also, should any amend
ments be thought necessary. The other powers, to which
treaties were to be proposed, were England, Hamburg,
Saxony, Prussia, Denmark, Russia, Austria, Venice,
Rome, Naples, Tuscany, Sardinia, Genoa, Spain, Por
tugal, the Porte, Algiers, Tripoli, Tunis, and Morocco.
19

214

LIFE OF

CHAPTER IX.

MR Jefferson accepted the honorable commission of
ambassador, and bid a final adieu to Congress, on the
11 th of May, 84, * Instead of returning to Monticello,
the scene of his recent and distressing bereavement, he
.vent directly to Philadelphia, took with him his eldest
daughter, then in that city, and proceeded to Boston in
quest of a passage. This was the only occasion on which
Mr Jefferson ever visited New England ; and while pur
suing his journey, he made a point of stopping at the
principal towns on the seaboard, to inform himself of
the state of commerce in each State. With the same
view he extended his route into New Hampshire. He
returned to Boston, and sailed thence, on the 5th of
July, in the merchant ship Ceres, bound to Cowes, where
he arrived, after a pleasant voyage, on the 26th. He
was detained here a few days, by the indisposition of
his daughter, when he embarked for Havre, and arrived
at Paris on the 6th of August. He called immediately
on Dr Franklin, at Passy, communicated to him their
charge and instructions ; and they wrote to Mr Adams,
then at the Hague, to join them at Paris.

The instructions given by Congress to the first pleni
potentiaries of independent America, were a novelty in
the history of international transactions ; and much curi
osity was manifested by the diplomatic corps of Europe,
resident at the court of Versailles, to know the author
of them. These instructions contemplated the introduc
tion of numerous and fundamental reformations in the

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 215

established relations of neutrals and belligerents ; which,
had the propositions of our ministers been embraced by
the principal powers of Europe, would have effected a
series of the most substantial and desirable improvements
in the international code of mankind. The principal
reformations intended, were, a provision exempting from
capture, by the public or private armed ships of either
belligerent, when at war, all merchant vessels and their
cargoes, employed merely in carrying on the commerce
between nations ; a provision against the molestation of
fishermen, husbandmen, citizens unarmed, and following
their occupations in unfortified places ; for the humane
treatment of prisoners of war ; for the abolition o/ con
traband of war, which exposes merchant vessels to such
ruinous detentions and abuses ; and for the recognition
of the principle of free bottoms, free goods.

Such were the distinguishing features of these unique
instructions ; and the interesting question of their author
ship has never been settled until since the publication of
Mr Jefferson s Private Correspondence. In a letter of
his, written but a short time before his death, to John Q.
Adams, then President of the United States, the whole
history of the transaction is concisely stated, in answer
to a special and friendly enquiry on the subject. He
ascribes to Dr Franklin the merit of having suggested
the principal innovations meditated by these instructions.

I am thankful for the very interesting message and
documents of which you have been so kind as to send
me a copy, and will state my recollections as to the par
ticular passage of the message to which you ask my at
tention. On the conclusion of peace, Congress, sensible
of their right to assume independence, would not conde
scend to ask its acknowledgment from other nations, yet
were willing, by some of the ordinary international trans
actions, to receive what would imply that acknowledge
ment. They appointed commissioners, therefore, to
propose treaties of commerce to the principal nations of

216 LIFE OF

Europe. I was then a member of Congress, was of the
committee appointed to prepare instructions for the com
missioners, was, as you suppose, the draughtsman of those
actually agreed to, and was joined with your father and
Doctor Franklin, to carry them into execution. But the
stipulations making part of these instructions, which re
spected privateering, blockades, contraband, and free
dom of the fisheries, were not original conceptions of
mine. They had before been suggested by Doctor
Franklin, in some of his papers in possession of the
public, and had, I think, been recommended in some
letter of his to Congress. I happen only to have been
the inserter of them in the first public act, which gave
the formal sanction of a public authority. *

Agreeably to their request, Mr Adams soon joined his
colleagues of the legation, at Paris ; and their first em
ployment was to prepare a general form of treaty, based
upon the broad principles of their instructions, to be
proposed to each nation without discrimination, but
without urging it upon any. In the conference with the
Count de Vergennes, the United States having already con
cluded a treaty with France, it was mutually agreed to
leave to legislative regulation, on both sides, such modifi
cations of our commercial intercourse as would voluntarily
flow from amicable dispositions. They next sounded the
ministers of the several European nations, assembled at
the court of Versailles, on the disposition of their re
spective governments towards mutual commerce, and
the expediency of encouraging it by the protection of a
treaty. The final success of their propositions to the
various powers, during a twelve months term of joint
diplomatic attendance in Europe, is very pleasantly and
comprehensively stated by Mr Jefferson himself.

1 Old Frederick, of Prussia, met us cordially, and
without hesitation ; and, appointing the Baron de Thule-
meyer, his minister at the Hague, to negotiate with us,
we communicated to him our Projet, which, with little
alteration by the king, was soon concluded. Denmark
and Tuscany entered also into negotiations with us.

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 217

Other powers appearing indifferent, we did not think it
proper to press them. They seemed, in fact, to know
little about us, but as rebels, who had been successful in
throwing off the yoke of the mother country. They
were ignorant of our commerce, which had been always
monopolized by England, and of the exchange of ar
ticles it might offer advantageously to both parties.
They were inclined, therefore, to stand aloof, until they
could see better what relations might be usefully insti
tuted with us. The negotiations, therefore, begun with
Denmark and Tuscany, we protracted designedly, until
our powers had expired ; and abstained from making
new propositions to others having no colonies ; because
our commerce being an exchange of raw for wrought
materials, is a competent price for admission into the
colonies of those possessing them ; but were we to give
it without price to others, all would claim it without price,
on the ground of gentis amicissimce.

As might have been foreseen, such was the reserve and
hauteur, with which the ambassadors of independent
America were treated by the representatives of the
governments of the ancient world. It is true, the United
States had just emerged from a subordinate condition ;
yet a little knowledge of the situation and resources of
the people and institutions of America, would have ap
prised them of the rank she was destined to hold in the
scale of empire, and of the nature of those relations
which it was their interest to have established with her.
By assuming an air of coyness and indifference, they
probably imagined they could inveigle our ministers into
terms more advantageous to themselves, than they were
in the habit of instituting with older countries and more
experienced agents. But they were met by the untutored
negotiators of republican America, with an equal indif
ference, as just and honorable as theirs was fallacious,
springing as it did, from a sense of the real value of our
commerce, and a determination not to exchange it, in
any case, without an adequate equivalent. As soon as
19*

218 LIFE OF

they became sensible, therefore, that they could do no
thing with the greater powers, who alone might offer a
competent exchange for our commerce, they prudently
resolved not to hamper our country with engagements
to those of less significance ; and accordingly suffered
their commission to expire without closing any other
negotiation than that with the king of Prussia.

Thus through the short-sighted cupidity of European
governments, was lost to the world a precious opportu
nity of commencing a reform in its international code,
by the introduction of wise and beneficent principles.
* Had these governments, says Mr Jefferson, been then
apprised of the station we should so soon occupy among
nations, all I believe, would have met us promptly and
with frankness. These principles would then have been
established with all, and from being the conventional law
with us alone, would have slid into their engagements
with one another, and become general. They have not
yet found their way into written history ; but their adop
tion by our southern brethren, will bring them into ob
servance, and make them what they should be, a part of
the law of the world, and of the reformation of princi
ples for which they will be indebted to us.

On the 10th of March, 1785, Mr Jefferson received the
unanimous appointment of minister plenipotentiary at
the court of France, as successor to Dr Franklin, who
had obtained leave to return to America. He was re-
elected to the same station in October, 87, on the expi
ration of his first term, and continued to represent the
United States at that court until October, 1789, when he
was permitted to return to his native country.

Mr Adams was about the same time appointed minis
ter plenipotentiary to England, and left Paris for Lon
don, in June, 85.

Mr Jefferson accepted the appointment, with a native
diffidence, heightened by a sense of the extraordinary

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 219

merits of his predecessor, and of the exalted estimation
in which they had established him with the French
nation.

His reception at the court of Versailles, as resident
ambassador of America, and his introduction into the
brilliant circles of Paris, were of the most flattering
character. At first, he was universally pointed to, and
appreciated only, as the successor of the admired, the
beloved, the venerated Franklin ; but in a short time, his
own estimable qualities became known, and established
him in the affections of the nation, with a firmness and
fervor which rivalled the reputation of his predecessor.
He was every where, and on all occasions, greeted with
a welcome, which evinced their cordial attachment to
the freemen and freedom of the United States. With a
mind constituted, as Mr Jefferson s was, it is not wonder
ful that the attentions which were showered upon him,
the science of their literary men, the warmth of their
general philanthropy, and the devotedness of their select
friendships, made an impression upon him, which he
carried in all its freshness to his grave.

On the retirement of Dr Franklin from the diplomatic
field, the duties of the joint commission for forming com
mercial treaties in Europe, devolved on Mr Jefferson and
Mr Adams ; and their separate stations added to their
insuperable repugnance to pressing the subject upon the
European governments, had almost extinguished the idea
of farther operations. But in February, 1786, Mr Jef
ferson received, by express, a letter from his colleague in
London, urging his immediate attendance at that court,
stating as a reason, that he thought he discovered there
some symptoms of a more favorable disposition towards
the United States. Col. Smith, his secretary of legation,
was the bearer of Mr Adams letters. Accordingly, Mr
Jefferson left Paris on the 1st of March, for the purpose
of co-operating with Mr Adams in a second attempt to
negotiate a treaty of commerce with Great Britain

220 LIFE OF

On his arrival in London, the two ministers met, and
agreed on a very summary and liberal form of treaty to
be offered, proposing in direct terms a mutual exchange
of citizenship, of ships, and of productions generally.

The reader will be amused with Mr Jefferson s ac
count of the magnanimous reception of their proposition,
and of the final result of his trip to the dignified court
of St James.

On my presentation, as usual, to the king and queen,
at their levees, it was impossible for any thing to be more
ungracious, than their notice of Mr Adams and myself.
I saw at once, that the ulcerations of mind in that quar
ter, left nothing to be expected on the subject of my at
tendance ; and, on the first conference with the Marquis
of Casrmarthen, the minister for foreign affairs, the dis
tance and disinclination which he betrayed in his con
versation, the vagueness and evasions of his answers to
us, confirmed me in the belief of their aversion to have
any thing to do with us. We delivered him, however,
our projet, Mr Adams not despairing as much as I did, of
its effect. We afterwards, by one or more notes, re
quested his appointment of an interview and conference,
which, without directly declining, he evaded, by pretence
of other pressing occupations for the moment. After
staying there seven weeks, till within a few days of the
expiration of our commission, I informed the minister,
by note, that my duties at Paris required my return to
that place, and that I should, with pleasure, be the bear
er of any commands to his ambassador there. He
answered, that he had none, and wishing me a pleasant
journey, I left London the 26th, and arrived at Paris the
30th of April.

Mr Jefferson s duties, while minister plenipotentiary
at Paris, were principally confined to the subject of our
commercial relations with that country ; in which he ef
fected many important modifications, highly advanta
geous to the United States. He succeeded in procuring
the receipt of our whale oils, salted fish, and salted meats,
on favorable terms ; the admission of our rice on equal

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 221

terms with that of Piedmont, Egypt, and the Levant ; a
suppression of the duties on our wheat, flour, furs, &c ;
the suppression of the monopoly for making arid selling
spermaceti candles ; the naturalization of our ships ; a
mitigation of the monopoly of our tobacco trade by the
farmers-general of France ; a reduction of the duties on
our tar, pitch, and turpentine ; and the free admission of
our productions generally, into their West India islands.
In exchange, the United States received, hy direct trade,
the wines, brandies, oils, and productions and manufac
tures generally, of France. These objects were not ac
complished, however, without a series of difficult and la
borious negotiations, aided by the mutual good temper
and dispositions of both parties, and by the mediation of
a powerful auxiliary and friend at that court, whose ar
duous and disinterested services in the cause of America
can never be forgotten.

On these occasions, says he, I was powerfully aided
by all the influence and the energies of the Marquis de
la Fayette, who proved himself equally zealous for the
friendship and welfare of both nations ; and, in justice,
I must also say, that I found the government entirely dis
posed to befriend us on all occasions, and to yield us
every indulgence, not absolutely injurious to themselves.
The Count de Vergennes had the reputation with the di
plomatic corps, of being wary and slippery in his diplo
matic intercourse ; and so he might be, with those, whom
he knew to be slippery, and double faced themselves.
As he saw that I had no indirect views, practised no sub-
tilties, meddled in no intrigues, pursued no concealed ob
ject, I found him as frank, as honorable, as easy of ac
cess to reason, as any man with whom 1 had ever done
business ; and I must say the same for his successor,
Montrnorin, one of the most honest and worthy of hu
man beings.

Our commerce in the Mediterranean having, at this
time, been suddenly placed under alarm, by the capture
of two of our vessels and crews by the Barbary cruisers,

222 LIFE OF

Mr Jefferson projected a coalition of the principal Euro
pean powers subject to their habitual depredations, to
compel the piratical States to perpetual peace, and to
guaranty that peace to each other. He was early and
resolutely determined, so far as his opinions could have
weight, that the United States should never acquiesce in
the European humiliation, as he termed it, of purchas
ing their peace of those lawless pirates. l Millions for
defence, but not a cent for tribute, was his celebrated
motto. The following is a statement of his reasons for
this policy, addressed to Mr Adams, soon after returning
to Paris, with a view to obtain his concurrence in the
proposition.

1. Justice is in favor of this opinion. 2. Honor fa
vors it. 3. It will procure us respect in Europe ; and
respect is a safeguard to interest. 4. It will arm the
federal head, with the safest of all the instruments of
coercion over its delinquent members, and prevent it
from using what would be less safe. I think, that so
far you go with me. But in the next steps we shall dif
fer. 5. I think it least expensive. 6. Equally effec
tual. I ask a fleet of one hundred and fifty guns, the
one half of which shall be in constant cruise. This
fleet, built, manned, and victualled for six months, will
cost four hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling.
Its annual expense will be three hundred pounds sterling
a gun, including every thing : this will be forty-five
thousand pounds sterling a year. I take British ex
perience for the basis of my calculation : though we
know, from our own experience, that we can do in this
way for pounds lawful, what costs them pounds sterling.
Were we to charge all this to the Algerine war, it would
amount to little more than we must pay if we buy peace.
But as it is proper and necessary, that we should estab
lish a small marine force, (even were we to buy a peace
from the Algerines) and as that force, laid up in our
dock-yard, would cost half as much annually as if kept
in order for service, we have a right to say, that only
twenty-two thousand and five hundred pounds sterling,
per annum, should be charged to the Algerine war. 7.

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 223

It will be as effectual. To all the mismanagements of
Spain and Portugal, urged to show that war against
those people is ineffectual, I urge a single fact to prove
the contrary, where there is any management. About
forty years ago, the Algerines having broke their treaty
with France, this court sent Monsieur de Massiac, with
one large and two small frigates : he blockaded the
harbor of Algiers three months, and they subscribed to
the terms he proposed. If it be admitted, however, that
war, on the fairest prospects, is still exposed to uncer
tainties, I weigh against this the greater uncertainty of
the duration of a peace bought with money, from such
a people, from a Dey eighty years old, and by a nation
who, on the hypothesis of buying peace, is to have no
power on the sea to enforce an observance of it.

So far I have gone on the supposition, that the
whole weight of this war would rest on us. But 1.
Naples will join us. The character of their naval mini
ster (Acton,) his known sentiments with respect to the
peace Spain is officially trying to make for them, and
his dispositions against the Algerines, give the best
grounds tq believe it. 2. Every principle of reason as
sures us, that Portugal will join us. I state this as
taking for granted, what all seem to believe, that they
will not be at peace with Algiers. I suppose, then, that
a convention might be formed between Portugal, Naples,
and the United States, by which the burden of the war
might be shared with them, according to their respective
wealth ; and the term of it should be, when Algiers
should subscribe to a peace with all three on equal
terms. This might be left open for other nations to
accede to ; and many, if not most of the powers of
Europe (except France, England, Holland, and Spain,
if her peace be made) would sooner or later enter into
the confederacy, for the sake of having their peace with
the piratical States guarantied by the w r hole. I suppose,
that, in this case, our proportion of force would not be
the half of what I first calculated on.

Presuming on Mr Adams concurrence, and without
waiting his answer, Mr Jefferson immediately draughted
and proposed to the diplomatic corps at Paris, for con-

224 LIFE OF

saltation with their respective governments, articles of
special confederation and alliance against the Barbary
powers; the substance of which was that the parties
should become mutually bound to compel these powers
to perpetuate peace, without price, and to guaranty
that peace to each other, the burden of the war to be
equitably apportioned among them.

The proposition was received with applause by Por
tugal, Naples, the two Sicilies, Venice, Malta, Den
mark, and Sweden. Spain had just concluded a treaty
with Algiers, at the expense of three millions of dollars,
and was indisposed to relinquish the benefit of her en
gagement, until a first infraction by the other party,
when she was ready to join. Mr Jefferson had pre
viously sounded the dispositions of the Count de Vergen-
nes ; and although France was at peace, by a mercenary
tenure, with the Barbary States, and fears were enter
tained that she would secretly give them her aid, he did
not think it proper, in his conference with that minister,
to insinuate a doubt of the fair conduct of his govern
ment ; but on stating to him the proposition, he men
tioned that apprehensions were felt that England would
interfere in behalf of the piratical powers. She dares
not do it, was his reply. Mr Jefferson pressed the
point no farther. The other ministers were satisfied
with this indication of the sentiments of France, and
nothing was now wanting to bring the measure into di
rect consideration, but the assent of the United States,
and their authority to make the formal stipulation.

Mr Jefferson communicated to Congress the favorable
prospect of protecting their commerce from the Bar
bary depredations, and for such a term of time, as by
an exclusion of them from the sea, would change their
characters from a predatory to an agricultural people ;
towards which, however, should the measure be ap
proved, it was expected they would contribute a frigate,
and its expenses, for constant cruise. But the United

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 225

States were in no condition lo unite in such an under
taking. The powers of Congress over the people for
obtaining contributions, being merely recommendatory,
and openly disregarded by the States, they declined en
tering into an engagement, which they were conscious
they could not fulfil with punctuality. The association
consequently fell through ; but the principle has ever
since governed in the American councils.

The remaining public objects of importance, which
engaged his attention, were : 1st, The settlement of the
financial concerns with our bankers in France and Hol
land, which were in a most critical and embarrassing
state. Owing to the partial suspension in the action of
our government, while passing from the confederation
to the constitutional form, the credit of the nation stood,
at one time, on the verge of bankruptcy. Seeing there
was not a moment to lose, Mr Jefferson went directly
to Holland, joined Mr Adams at the Hague, where,
without instructions and at their own risk, they executed
bonds for a million of florins and pledged the credit of
the United States in security for three years to come ;
by which time they thought the new government would
get fairly under way. 2d, The conclusion of a consular
convention with France, based upon republican princi
ples. 3d, The restoration of certain prizes taken from
the British during the war, recaptured by Denmark, and
delivered up to the British. He instituted measures to
recover indemnification from Denmark; but the nego
tiation, by unavoidable circumstances, was spun out be
yond the term of his ministry. 4th, The redemption of
American citizens taken captive by the Algerines ; and
the formation of treaties with the Barbary States. The
inability of the United States to supply him with the ne
cessary funds, prevented the redemption of the Algerine
captives, until after his return from France ; and the
only treaty which he succeeded in concluding with the
20

226

LIFE OP

Barbary States, was that with the government of Mo
rocco. .

It will be interesting to the American reader, to know
how the general appearance of things in Europe struck
the republican rnind of Mr Jefferson. His private let
ters, while in Paris, addressed to his friends in America,
comprise the most nervous, and in some respects, the
most valuable portions of his voluminous correspondence.
His views of the state of society and manners in Eu
rope, his comparison of its governments, laws, and in
stitutions, with those of republican America, and his
unremitting exhortations to his countrymen to preserve
themselves and the blessings they enjoy free from con
tamination with the people and principles of the old
world, are among the most valuable and interesting lega
cies which he has bequeathed to his country.

Soon after the restoration of peace, the incompetency
of the confederation to sustain the republican structure,
was so alarmingly felt, that even those who had been
most ardent in its establishment apostatized in great
numbers, to the principles of monarchical government,
as the only refuge of political safety.

The causes of this deflection in political opinion are
inherent in the constitution of man ; but powerful ex
ternal reasons co-operated, at this period, to stimulate
and force it on. The people had come out of the war
of the revolution, oppressed with the debts of the union,
with the debts of the individual States, and with their
own private debts ; and they were utterly unable to dis
charge any, from the best of all causes, the want of
pecuniary means. The inability of Congress, from the
want of coercive powers, to cancel the public obliga
tions, destroyed the public credit ; and the application
of judgment and execution, in the case of private debts,
served only to increase the general distress. The in
terruption of their commerce with Great Britain, and
the deficiency, as yet, of other markets for their produc-

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 227

tions, operated with peculiar severity upon the eastern
States ; and the neglect of a suitable relaxation of the
judiciary arm in those governments, brought on disas
trous consequences. Under the pressure of this general
distress, the popular discontent broke out into acts of
violence, and flagrant insubordination. Tumultuary
meetings were held in New-Hampshire and Connecti
cut ; and in Massachusetts a formidable insurrection
arose, which menaced the very foundations of the gov
ernment.

These disturbances and commotions occasioned a
general alarm throughout the union. They excited a
sensible distrust of the principles of our government
among its most sanguine votaries ; while, with its ene
mies, the intelligence of such events was greeted
with exultation, as affording a happy augury of the
downfall of the republic. Now it was that those theo
retic ideas of public virtue, on which the beautiful
edifice of liberty was erected, began to be scouted as
chimerical. The people were distrusted, and terror was
considered the only competent motive of restraint, and
engine of subordination.

Mr Jefferson was distant from his country, at this
disheartening juncture ; but his eye watched over her,
and the voice of his counsels was heard and felt. His
confidence in the soundness of the republican theory,
underwent no change from those occasional eccentrici
ties in practice which are inseparable from all human
institutions, and which were chargeable, in the present
case, to the pressure of the times, and the weakness of
the confederation, rather than to any inherent principle
of disorganization. His reliance upon the good sense
of the people to rectify abuses in a proper manner, was
so strong, that he deemed an occasional rebellion a de
sirable event, inasmuch as it afforded the best evidence
that this sense was active and vigorous ; to enlighten it,
then, was the only thing necessary to ensure a favorable

228 LIFE OF

result. Indeed, his conviction of the capacity of man
kind to govern themselves, was confirmed by the intel
ligence of these irregular proofs of their dissatisfaction
under the present circumstances ; and he took care to
impress this opinion upon his numerous correspondents
in America, on every occasion, and in the most emphatic
te.rms. An acquaintance with his private correspondence
at this period, would afford satisfaction to the lovers of
human nature and of human rights.

To CoL E. CARRINGTON. I am persuaded myself,
that the good sense of the people will always be found
to be the best army. They may be led astray for a
moment, but will soon correct themselves. The people
are the only censors of their governors ; and even their
errors will tend to keep these to the true principles of
their institutions. To punish such errors too severely,
would be to suppress the only safeguard of the public
liberty. The way to prevent these irregular interposi
tions of the people, is to give them full information of
their affairs, through the channel of the public papers,
and to contrive that those papers should penetrate the
whole mass of the people. The basis of our govern
ment being the opinion of the people, the very first
object should be to keep that right ; and were it left to
me to decide, whether we should have a government
without newspapers, or newspapers without a govern
ment, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the lat
ter. But I would insist, that every man should receive
those papers, and be capable of reading them. I am
convinced that those societies, (as the Indians) which
live without government, enjoy in their general mass an
infinitely greater degree of happiness, than those who
live under the European governments. Among the for
mer, public opinion is in the place of law, and restrains
morals as powerfully as laws ever did any where.
Among the latter, under pretence of governing, they
have divided their nation into two classes, wolves and
sheep. I do not exaggerate. This is the true picture
of Europe. Cherish, therefore, the spirit of our peo
ple, and keep alive their attention. Do not be too se-

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 229

vere upon their eri ors, but reclaim them by enlightening
them. If once they become inattentive to the pub
lic affairs, you, and I, and Congress, and assemblies,
judges and governors, shall all become wolves. It
seems to be the. law of our general nature, in spite of
individual exceptions: and experience declares, that man
is the only animal which devours his own kind ; for I
can apply no milder term to the governments of Europe,
and to the general prey of the rich on the poor.

To JAMES MADISON. I am impatient to learn your
sentiments on the late troubles in the eastern States. So
far as I have yet seen, they do not appear to threaten
serious consequences. Those States have suffered by
the stoppage of the channels of their commerce, which
have not yet found other issues. This must render mo
ney scarce, and make the people uneasy. This uneasi
ness has produced acts absolutely unjustifiable : but I
hope they will provoke no severities from their govern
ments. A consciousness of those in power, that their
administration of the public affairs has been honest, may,
perhaps, produce too great a degree of indignation : and
those characters wherein fear predominates over hope,
may apprehend too much from these instances of irreg
ularity. They may conclude too hastily, that nature has
formed man insusceptible of any other government than
that of force, a conclusion not founded in truth nor ex
perience. Societies exist under three forms, sufficiently
distinguishable. 1. Without government, as among our
Indians. 2 Under governnlfents, wherein the will of ev
ery one has a just influence ; as is the case in England,
in a slight degree, and in our States, in a great one. 3.
Under governments of force ; as is the case in all other
monarchies, and in most of the other republics. To
have an idea of the curse of existence under these last,
they must be seen. It is a government of wolves over
sheep. It is a problem, not clear in my mind, that the
first condition is not the best. But I believe it to be in
consistent with any great degree of population. The
second state has a great deal of good in it. The mass
of mankind under that, enjoys a precious degree of lib
erty and happiness. It has its evils too ; the principal
of which is the turbulence to which it is subject. But
20*

230 LIFE OF

weigh this against the oppressions of monarchy, and it
becomes nothing. Malo periculosam libertatem quam
quietam servitutem. Even this evil is productive of good.
It prevents the degeneracy of government, and nourish
es a general attention to the public affairs. I hold it,
that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and
as necessary in the political world, as storms in the phy
sical. Unsuccessful rebellions, indeed, generally estab
lish the encroachments on the rights of the people, which
have produced them. An observation of this truth should
render honest republican governors so mild in their pun
ishment of rebellions, as not to discourage them too
much. It is a medicine necessary for the sound health
of government.

To DAVID HARTLEY, of England. The most inter
esting intelligence from America, is that respecting the
late insurrection in Massachusetts. The cause of this
has not been developed to me to my perfect satisfaction.
The most probable is, that those individuals were of the
imprudent number of those who have involved them
selves in debt beyond their abilities to pay, and that a
vigorous effort .in that government to compel the pay
ment of private debts, and raise money for public ones,
produced the resistance. I believe you may be assured,
that an idea or desire of returning to any thing like their
ancient government, never entered into their heads. I
am not discouraged by this. For thus I calculate. An
insurrection in one of thirteen States, in the course of
eleven years that they have subsisted, amounts to one
in any particular State, in one hundred and forty-three
years, say a century and a half. This would not be
near as many as have happened in every other govern
ment that has ever existed. So that we shall have the
difference between a light and a heavy government as
clear gain. I have no fear, but tha t the result of our
experiment will be, that men may be trusted to govern
themselves without a master.

To Col. SMITH. Wonderful is the effect of impu
dent and persevering lying. The British ministry have
so long hired their gazetteers to repeat, and model into
every form, lies about our being in anarchy, that the

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 231

world has at length believed them, the English nation
has believed them, the ministers themselves have come
to believe them, and what is more wonderful, we have
believed them ourselves. Yet where does this anarchy
exist ? Where did it ever exist, except in the single in
stance of Massachusetts ? And can history produce
an instance of rebellion so honorably conducted 1 I say
nothing of its motives. They were founded in ignor
ance, not wickedness. God forbid, we should ever be
twenty years without such a rebellion. The people
cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part
which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the
importance of the facts they misconceive. If they re- -
main quiet under such misconceptions, it is a fethargy,
the forerunner of death to the public liberty. We have
had thirteen States independent for eleven years. There
has been one rebellion. That comes to one rebellion in
a century and a half for each State. What country be
fore ever existed a century and a half without a rebel
lion 1 And what country can preserve its liberties, if
its rulers are not warned from time to time, that the
people preserve the spirit of resistance ? Let them take
arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, par
don, and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in
a century or two 1 The tree of liberty must be refresh
ed from time to time with the blood of patriots and ty
rants. It is its natural manure.

Such is a specimen of the philosophy which Mr Jef
ferson poured into the breasts of the public characters
of America, at this important juncture. His opinions
were received with respect by all those with whom he
had acted on the theatre of the revolution ; and his ear
nest and unremitting counsels had a powerful influence
in checking the anti-republican tendencies which had
already risen up. In a short time, the deluge of evils
which overflowed the country, was traced to its original
source ; and no sooner was the happy discovery made,
than the virtue and good sense of the people, in verifi
cation of his repeated auguries, nobly interposed, and
instead of seeking relief in rebellion and civil war, as-

232 LIFE OP

sembled their wise men together to apply a rational and
peaceable remedy.

The first grand movement towards re-organizing the
government of the United States, upon the basis of the
present constitution, was made in the general assembly
of Virginia, on motion of Mr IMadison. The proposi
tion merely contemplated an amendment of the con
federation, which should confer on Congress the abso
lute and exclusive power over the regulation of com
merce ; and resulted in the convocation of a conven
tion for that purpose, to meet at Annapolis, in Sep-
Atember,J786. The commercial convention failed in

point of representation ; but it laid the foundation for
the call of a grand national convention, with powers to
revise the entire system of government, to meet at
Philadelphia the ensuing year.

The opinions of Mr Jefferson had an undoubted in
fluence in these important proceedings in America. In
all his dispatches to the government, and in his private
letters to the leading political men, he had reiterated
the necessity of fundamental reformations in the federal
compact. The defect which he most deplored was the
absence of a uniform power to regulate our commercial
intercourse with foreign nations. This disability was
the incessant theme of his complaints. It was the pri
mary source he declared, of those irregularities and em
barrassments which continually obstructed his negotia
tions with the European nations. Those powers who
were disposed to treat, would never do it, so long as the
government had no authority to protect them, by treaty,
from the navigation acts of the particular States ; and
those who were indisposed to treat, would forever remain
so for the same reason ; whilst all would exercise the
right to retaliate on the union, the restrictions imposed
on their commerce by the laws of any one individual
State. He maintained a constant correspondence on
these points with Washington, Wythe, Monroe, Lang-

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 233

don, Gerry, and particularly his friend Madison. The
intelligence of the first movements in America, towards
a reformation of the national compact, filled him with
the liveliest gratification, as is evinced by his letters of
that date. A single specimen will suffice to show the
general tenor of his correspondence on this subject.

To JAMES MADISON. I have heard, with great
pleasure, that our assembly have come to the resolution,
of giving the regulation of their commerce to the federal
head. I will venture to assert, that there is not one of
its opposers, who, placed on this ground, would not see
the wisdom of the measure. The politics of Europe
render it indispensably necessary, that, with respect to
every thing external, we be one nation only, firmly
hooped together. Interior government is what each
State should keep to itself. If it were seen in Europe,
that all our States could be brought to concur in what
the Virginia assembly has done, it would produce a total
revolution in their opinion of us, and they would respect
us. And it should ever be held in mind, that insult and
war are the consequences of a want of respectability in
the national character. As long as the States exercise,
separately, those acts of power which respect foreign
nations, so long will there continue to be irregularities
committed by some one or other of them, which will
constantly keep us on an ill footing with foreign na
tions.

The national convention, appointed to digest a new
constitution of government, assembled at Philadelphia
on the 25th of May, 1787. Delegates attended from
all the States, except Rhode-Island, who refused to
appoint any. George Washington was unanimously
chosen to preside over their deliberations. They sat
with closed doors, and passed an injunction of entire
secrecy on their proceedings. This was an erroneous {
beginning, in the opinion of Mr Jefferson, who viewed
every encroachment upon the freedom of speech with
extreme jealousy. I am sorry,* he writes to Mr Adams,
* they began their deliberations by so abominable a pre-

234 LIFE OF

cedent, as that of tying 1 up the tongues of their members.
Nothing can justify this example, but the innocence of
their intentions, and ignorance of the value of public
discussions. I have no doubt that all their other mea
sures will be good and wise. It is really an assembly of
demi-gods.

During the deliberations and discussions of this assem
bly, those fearful anti-republican heresies which had
sprung up during the short interval of peace, developed
themselves in a more tangible and decided form. Vari
ous propositions were submitted to the convention, some
of which were dangerous approximations to monarchy.
One of these, proposed by Alexander Hamilton, was in
fact a compromise between the two principles of royal-
ism and republicanism. According to this plan, the ex
ecutive, and one branch of the legislature were to continue
in office during good behavior ; and the governors of
the States were to be named by these two permanent
organs. The proposition, however, was rejected.

Although a stranger to these transactions, Mr Jeffer
son could not contemplate the idea of such a conven
tion without great anxiety. His counsels were eagerly
solicited by Madison, Wythe and others, from time to
time, during the progress of the convention, and he com
municated to them his opinions, with modesty and frank
ness. It is very evident from the tenor of some of his
answers, that he had received hints of the monarchical
dispositions which characterized a portion of the as
sembly. His fears were so strong from this direc
tion, that he leaned heavily the other way, in stating his
opinions of the necessary reformations.

To Mr MADISON. The idea of separating the ex
ecutive business of the confederacy from Congress, as
the judiciary is already, in some degree, is just and ne
cessary. I had frequently pressed on the members in
dividually, while in Congress, the doing this by a reso
lution of Congress for appointing an executive com-

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 235

mittee, to act during the sessions of Congress, as the
committee of the States was to act during their vaca
tions. But the referring to this committee all executive
business, as it should present itself, would require a
more persevering self-denial than I suppose Congress to
possess. It would he much better to make that separa
tion by a federal act. The negative proposed to be
given them on all the acts of the several legislatures, is
now, for the first time, suggested to my mind. Prima
facie, I do not like it. It fails in an essential charac
ter; that the hole and the patch should be commen
surate. But this proposes to mend a small hole, by
covering the whole garment. Not more than one out of
one hundred State acts, concern the confederacy. This
proposition, then, in order to give them one degree of
power, which they ought to have, gives them ninety-nine
more, which they ought not to have, upon a presump
tion that they will not exercise the ninety-nine.

To E. CARRINGTON. * I confess, I do not go as far
in the reforms thought necessary, as some of my cor
respondents in America; but if the convention should
adopt such propositions, I shall suppose them necessary.
My general plan would be, to make the States one, as
to every thing connected with foreign nations, and seve
ral as to every thing purely domestic. But with all the
imperfections of our present government, it is, without
comparison, the best existing, or that ever did exist.
Its greatest defect is the imperfect manner in which
matters of commerce have been provided for.

To Mr HAWKINS. I look up with you to the federal
convention, for an amendment of our federal affairs.
Yet I do not view them in so disadvantageous a light at
present, as some do. And above all things, I am aston
ished at some people s considering a kingly government
as a refuge. Advise such to read the fable of the frogs,
who solicited Jupiter for a king. If that does not put
them to rights, send them to Europe, to see something
of the trappings of monarchy, and I will undertake,
that every man shall go back thoroughly cured. If all
the evils which can arise among us, from the republican

236 LIFE OF

form of government, from this day to the day of judg
ment, could be put into a scale against what this coun
try suffers from its monarchical form, in a week, or
England in a month f the latter would preponderate.
Consider the contents of the Red book in England, or
the Almanac Royale of France, and say what a people
gain by monarchy. No race of kings has ever pre
sented above one man of common sense, in twenty gene
rations. The best they can do is, to leave things to
their ministers ; arid what are their ministers, but a
committee badly chosen 1 If the king, ever meddles, it
is to do harm.

To J. JONES. I am anxious to hear what our fede
ral convention recommends, and what the States will
do in consequence of their recommendation. *
With all the defects of our constitution, whether general
or particular, the comparison of our governments with
those of Europe, is like a comparison of heaven and
hell. England, like the earth, may be allowed to take
the intermediate station. And yet I hear there are
people among you, who think the experience of our
governments has already proved, that republican govern
ments will not answer. Send those gentry here, to
count the blessings of monarchy. A king s sister, for
instance, stopped in the road, and on a hostile journey,
is sufficient cause for him to march immediately twenty
thousand men to revenge the insult.

To G. WYTHE. * You ask me in your letter what
ameliorations I think necessary in our federal constitu
tion. It is now too late to answer the question, and it
would have always been presumption in me to have done
it. Your own ideas, and those of the great characters
who were to be concerned with you in these discussions,
will give the law, as they ought to do, to us all. My
own general idea was, that the States should severally
preserve their sovereignty in whatever concerns them
selves alone ; and that whatever may concern another
State, or any foreign nation, should be made a part of
the federal sovereignty ; that the exercise of the federal
sovereignty should be divided among three several

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 237

bodies, legislative, executive, and judiciary, as the State
sovereignties are ; and that some peaceable means should
be contrived, for the federal head to force compliance
on the part of the States.

To GENERAL WASHINGTON I remain in hopes of
great and good effects from the decision of the assembly
over which you are presiding. To make our States
one, as to all foreign concerns, preserve them several as
to all merely domestic, to give to the federal head some
peaceable mode of enforcing its just authority, to or
ganize that head into legislative, executive, and judi
ciary departments, are great desiderata in our federal
constitution. Yet with all its defects, and with all those
of our particular governments, the inconveniences re
sulting from them are so light, in comparison with those
existing in every other government on earth, that our
citizens may certainly be considered as in the happiest
political situation which exists.

On the 17th of September, 87, the national conven
tion dissolved, and submitted the result of their labors
to the world. The instrument was not without its de
fects ; and as these were all on the side of power, and
too palpable not to be detected by an intelligent peo
ple, it excited among the more jealous partisans of li
berty, such a tempest of opposition as rendered its ac
ceptance by the nation extremely problematical. It was
taken up by special conventions in the several States, in
the years 87 and 88. The contest raged most severely
in Virginia, New York, Massachusetts, and New Hamp
shire. In these States, the public discussions were vehe
ment and agitating; but the question was finally carried
in favor of ratification, by small majorities, in all of them.
In Georgia, New Jersey, and Delaware, the constitution
was ratified without opposition; and by considerable
majorities, in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Maryland,
and South Carolina. North Carolina would only ac
cept it upon the condition of previous amendments.
Rhode Island declined calling a convention, and did not
21

238

LIFE OF

accede to the union until May, 1790. Six States rati
fied without qualification, and seven with the recom
mendation of certain specified amendments.

Mr Jefferson received a copy of the new constitution
early in November, 87. He read and contemplated its
provisions with great satisfaction, though not without
serious apprehensions from some of its features. His
principal objections were, to the omission of a declaration
of rights ensuring freedom of religion, freedom of the
press, freedom of the person under the uninterrupted pro
tection of the habeas corpus^ and the trial by jury in civil as
well as criminal cases ; and to the perpetual re-eligibility
of the president. His opinions were immediately con
sulted by his political friends in the United States, and
he communicated to them his approbations and objec
tions, without reserve. They are found stated at length,
and in a most interesting manner, in a letter to Mr
Madison, dated Paris, December 20th, 1787.

I like much the general idea of framing a government,
which should go on of itself peaceably, without needing
continual recurrence to the State legislatures. I like
the organization of the government into legislative, judi
ciary, and executive. I like the power given the legis
lature to levy taxes, and for that reason solely, I ap
prove of the greater house being chosen by the people
directly. For though I think a house, so chosen, will
be very far inferior to the present Congress, will be
very illy qualified to legislate for the union, for foreign
nations, &c; yet this evil does not weigh against the
good of preserving inviolate the fundamental principle,
that the people are not to be taxed but by representa
tives chosen immediately by themselves. I am captiva
ted by the compromise of the opposite claims of the
great and little States, of the latter to equal, and the
former to proportional influence. I am much pleased,
too, with the substitution of the method of voting by
persons, instead of that of voting by States ; and I like
the negative given to the executive, conjointly with a
third of either house ; though I should have liked it

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 239

better, had the judiciary been associated for that pur
pose, or invested separately with a similar power.
There are other good things of less moment.

I will now tell you what I do not like. First, the
omission of a bill of rights, providing clearly, and with
out the aid of sophism, for freedom of religion, freedom
of the press, protection against standing armies, restric
tion of monopolies, the eternal and unremitting force
of the habeas corpus laws, and trials by jury in all^mat-
ters of fact triable by the laws of the land, and not by
the laws of nations. To say, as Mr Wilson does, that
a bill of rights was not necessary, because all is re
served in the case of the general government, which
is not given, while in the particular ones, all is given
which is not reserved, might do for the audience to
which it was addressed ; but it is surely a gratis dictum,
the reverse of which might just as well be said; and it
is opposed by strong inferences from the body of the
instrument, as well as from the omission of the clause
of our present confederation, which had made the re
servation in express terms. It was hard to conclude,
because there had been a want of uniformity among
the States as to the cases triable by jury, because some
have been so incautious as to dispense with this mode
of trial in certain cases, therefore the more prudent
States shall be reduced to the same level of calamity.
It would have been much more just and wise to have
concluded the other way, that as most of the States had
preserved, with jealousy, this sacred palladium of liberty,
those who had wandered, should be brought back to
it : and to have established general right, rather than
general wrong. For I consider all the ill as establish
ed, which may be established. I have a right to no
thing, which another has a right to take away; and
Congress will have a right to take away trials by jury
in all civil cases. Let me add, that a bill of rights is
what the people are entitled to against every govern
ment on earth, general or particular ; and what no just
government should refuse, or rest on inference.

The second feature I dislike, and strongly dislike,
is the abandonment, in every instance, of the principle
of rotation in office, and most particularly in the case of

240 LIFE OP

the president. Reason and experience tell us, that the
first magistrate will always be re-elected if he may be
re-elected. He is then an officer for life. This once
observed, it becomes of so much consequence to cer
tain nations, to have a friend or a foe at the head of
our affairs, that they will interfere with money and with
arms. A Galloman, or an Angloman, will be supported
by the nation he befriends. If once elected, and at a
second or third, election outvoted by one or two votes,
he will pretend false votes, foul play, hold possession of
the reins of government, be supported by the States
voting for him, especially if they be the central ones,
lying in a compact body themselves, and separating
their opponents ; and they will be aided by one nation
in Europe, while the majority are aided by another.
The election of a president of America, some years
hence, will be much more interesting to certain nations
of Europe, than ever the election of a king of Poland
was. Reflect on all the instances in history, ancient
and modern, of elective monarchies, and say, if they do
not give foundation for my fears ; the Roman emperors,
the Popes while they were of any importance, the Ger
man emperors till they became hereditary in practice,
the kings of Poland, the Deys of the Ottoman depen
dencies. It may be said, that if elections are to be at
tended with these disorders, the less frequently they are
repeated the better. But experience says, that to free
them from disorder, they must be rendered less interest
ing by a necessity of change. No foreign power, nor
domestic party, will waste their blood and money to
elect a person, who must go out at the end of a short
period. The power of removing every fourth year by
the vote of the people, is a power which they will not
exercise, and if they were disposed to exercise it, they
would not be permitted. The king of Poland is re
movable every day by the diet. But they never remove
him. Nor would Russia, the emperor, &c, permit them
to do it. Smaller objections are, the appeals on mat
ters of fact as well as law; and the binding all persons,
legislative, executive and judiciary, by oath, to main
tain that constitution. I do not pretend to decide, what
would be the best method of procuring the establish-

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 241

snent of the manifold good things in this constitution,
and of getting rid of the bad. Whether by adopting it,
in hopes of future amendment; or, after it shall have
been duly weighed and canvassed by the people, after
seeing the parts they generally dislike, and those they
generally approve, to say to them, * We see now what
you wish. You are willing to give to your federal
government such and such powers : but you wish, at
the same time, to have such and such fundamental
rights secured to you, and certain sources of convul
sion taken away. Be it so. Send together your dep
uties again. Let them establish your fundamental rights
by sacrosanct declaration, and let them pass the parts
of the constitution you have approved. These will give
powers to your federal government sufficient for your
happiness.

This is what might be said, and would probably pro
duce a speedy, more perfect, and more permanent form
of government. At all events, I hope you will not be
discouraged from making other trials, if the present one
should fail. We are never permitted to despair of the
commonwealth. I have thus told you freely what I like,
and what I dislike, merely as a matter of curiosity ; for
I know it is not in my power to offer matter of informa
tion to your judgment, which has been formed after hear
ing and weighing every thing which the wisdom of man
could offer on these subjects. I own I am not a friend to
a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.
After all, it is my principle that the will
of the majority should prevail. If they approve the
proposed constitution in all its parts, I shall concur in it
cheerfully, in hopes they will amend it, whenever they
shall find it works wrong. This reliance cannot deceive
us, as long as we remain virtuous ; and I think we shall
be so, as long as agriculture is our principal object,
which will be the case, while there remain vacant lands
in any part of America. When we get piled upon one
another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become
corrupt as in Europe, and go to eating one another as
they do there.

With the mass of good which it contained, Mr Jeffer
son found, on a careful scrutiny, such a mixture of evil
21*

242

LIFE OF

in the new constitution, that he was in doubt what course
to recommend to his countrymen. How the good should
be secured, and the ill avoided, was the great question,
and presented great difficulties. To refer it back to a
new convention, might jeopardize the whole, which was
utterly inadmissible. His first advice, therefore, was
that the nine States first acting upon it, should accept
unconditionally, and thus secure whatever in it was wise
and beneficial; and that the four States last acting,
should accept only on the previous condition that certain
amendments should be made. But he afterwards re
commended the more prudent course of unconditional
acceptance by the whole, with a concomitant declara
tion that it should stand as a perpetual instruction to
their respective delegates to endeavor to obtain such and
such reformations. And this was the course finally
adopted by nearly all the States.

Much as has been said and written of Mr Jefferson s
hostility to the federal constitution, there was not a per
son in America who set a more solid value on it, even in
its original form ; nor one who was impressed with more
rational anxieties for its adoption. To estimate the
force of his convictions upon this point, and the cogency
of his endeavors to instil the same convictions into his
countrymen, it is only necessary to consult the pages of
his private correspondence. Adoring republicanism,
hating monarchy, he discriminated with the sagacity of a
profound statesman, between those features of the instru
ment which were congenial, and those which were hos
tile, to the principles of his political idolatry. While he
gave all his soul to the preservation of the former, he de
precated with equal sincerity any admixture of the lat
ter, neither approving nor condemning in the mass. He
was, therefore, neither a federalist nor an anti-federalist,
as the advocates and opponents of the constitution were
distinguished. He was an independent asserter of his
opinions on questions of national concern, the most pro-

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 243

found and interesting that had ever been submitted to
the deliberation of the American people ; and he had
the happiness to see those opinions, on almost every
point, adopted by the nation and incorporated into its
frame of government, by special emendatory acts. A
few passages from his correspondence will evince his
anxiety for the fate of the constitution, and his persever
ance in the endeavor to obtain the amendments which he
deemed so essential.

To JAMES MADISON. f sincerely rejoice at the ac
ceptance of our new constitution by nine States. It is
a good canvass, on which some strokes only want re
touching. What these are, I think are sufficiently man
ifested by the genera] foice from north to south, which
calls for a bill of rights. It seems pretty generally un
derstood, that this should go to juries, habeas corpus,
standing armies, printing, religion, and monopolies. I
conceive there may be difficulty in finding general mod
ifications of these, suited to the habits of all the States.
But if such cannot be found, then it is better to establish
trials by jury, the right of habeas corpus , freedom of the
press, and freedom of religion, in all cases, and to abol
ish standing armies in time of peace, and monopolies in
all cases, than not to do it in any. The few cases where
in these things may do evil, cannot be weighed against
the multitude, wherein the want of them will do evil.

To G. WASHINGTON. I have seen, with infinite
pleasure, our new constitution accepted by eleven States,
not rejected by the twelfth ; and that the thirteenth hap
pens to be a State of the least importance. It is true,
that the minorities in most of the accepting States have
been very respectable ; so much so, as to render it pru
dent, were it not otherwise reasonable, to make some
sacrifice to them. I am in hopes, that the annexation of
a bill of rights to the constitution will alone draw over
so great a proportion of the minorities, as to leave little
danger in the opposition of the residue ; and that this
annexation may be made by Congress and the assem
blies, without calling a convention, which might endan
ger the most valuable parts of the system.

244 LIFE OP

To COL. HUMPHREYS. The operations which have
tak&i place in America lately, fill me with pleasure. In
the first place, they realize the confidence I had, that
whenever our affairs go obviously wrong, the good sense
of the people will interpose, and set them to rights. The
example of changing a constitution, by assembling the
wise men of the State, instead of assembling armies,
will be worth as much to the world as the former exam
ples we had given them. The constitution, too, which
was the result of our deliberations, is unquestionably the
wisest ever yet presented to man, and some of the ac
commodations of interest which it has adopted, are
greatly pleasing to me, who have before had occasions of
seeing how difficult those interests were to accommodate.
A general concurrence of opinion seems to authorize us
to say it has some defects. I am one of those who think
it a defect, that the important rights, not placed in secu
rity by the frame of the constitution itself, were not ex
plicitly secured by a supplementary declaration. There
are rights w lich it is useless to surrender to the govern
ment, and which governments have yet always been fond
to invade. These are the rights of thinking, and pub
lishing our thoughts by speaking or writing ; the right
of free commerce ; the right of personal freedom.
There are instruments for administering the government
so peculiarly trust-worthy, that we should never leave
the legislature at liberty to change them. The new con
stitution has secured these in the executive and legisla
tive departments ; but not in the judiciary. It should
have established trials by the people themselves, that is
to say, by jury. There are instruments so dangerous to
the rights of the nation, and which place them so totally
at the mercy of their governors, that those governors,
whether legislative or executive, should be restrained
from keeping such instruments on foot, but in well de
fined cases. Such an instrument is a standing army.
We are now allowed to say, such a declaration of rights,
as a supplement to the constitution, where that is silent,
is wanting, to secure us in these points. The general
voice has legitimated this objection. It has not, however,
authorized me to consider as a real defect, what I thought,
and still think one, the perpetual re-eligibility of the
president. But three States out of eleven having de-

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 245

clared against this, we must suppose we are wrong, ac
cording to the fundamental law of every society, the lex
mqjoris partis, to which we are bound to submit. And
should the majority change their opinion, and become
sensible that this trait in their constitution is wrong, I
would wish it to remain uncorrected, as long as we can
avail ourselves of the services of our great leader, whose
talents and whose weight of character, I consider as pe
culiarly necessary to get the government so under way,
as that it may afterwards be carried on by subordinate
characters.

The ardor and perseverance of Mr Jefferson in the ef
fort to obtain a supplementary bill of rights to the con
stitution, were soon crowned with success. At the ses
sion of 1789, Mr Madison submitted to Congress a series
of amendments which, with various propositions on the
same subject from other States, were referred to a com
mittee of one from each State in the Union. The result
was the annexation, in due form, of the ten original
amendments to our federal constitution. So great was
the influence of Mr Jefferson in forwarding this measure,
though absent during the whole time, that lie is generally
regarded as the father of these amendments. They
embraced the principal objections urged by him without
going far enough to satisfy him entirely. By them, the
freedom of religion, of speech, and of the press, the
right of the people to deliberate and petition for redress
of grievances, the right of keeping and bearing arms, of
the trial by jury in civil as well as criminal cases, the ex
emption from general warrants and from the quartering
of soldiers in private dwellings, were pronounced irre
vocable and intangible by the government ; and the pow
ers not delegated by the constitution, nor prohibited by it
to the States, were declared to be reserved to the States or
to the people. But the right of habeas corpus was still left
to the discretion of Congress ; monopolies were not posi
tively guarded against ; and standing armies in time of
peace were not prohibited. His objections also against the

246 i. LIFE OF

perpetual re-eligibility of the president, although backed
by the recommendation of three States, were not sanction
ed by Congress. His fears of that feature were founded on
the importance of the office, on the fierce contentions it
might excite among ourselves, if continuable for life, and
the dangers of interference, either with money or arms,
by foreign nations, to whom the choice of an American
president might become interesting. Examples of this
abounded in history ; in the case of the Roman emper
ors, for instance ; of the popes, while of any signifi
cance ; of the German emperors ; the kings of Poland,
and the deys of Barbary. But his apprehensions on this
head gradually subsided, and finally became extinct, on
witnessing the effect in practice. Alluding to his early
opinions on this subject, he said in 1821 :

My wish was, that the president should be elected for
seven years, and be ineligible afterwards. This term I
thought sufficient to enable him, with the concurrence of
the legislature, to carry through and establish any sys
tem of improvement he should propose for the general
good. But the practice adopted, I think, is better, al
lowing his continuance for eight years, with a liability to
be dropped at half way of the term, making that a pe
riod of probation. * * * The example of four
presidents, voluntarily retiring at the end of their eighth
year, and the progress of public opinion, that the prin
ciple is salutary, have given it in practice the force of
precedent and usage ; insomuch, that should a president
consent to be a candidate for a third election, I trust he
would be rejected, on this demonstration of ambitious
views.

There was another question agitated in the councils of
the United States, during Mr Jefferson s residence in
France, which he viewed with as much concern as the
adoption of the constitution. This was the proposition
to abandon the navigation of the Mississippi to the king
of Spain, for the period of twenty -five or thirty years, as
an equivalent for a treaty of commerce with that nation.

JTHOMAS JEFFERSON. -247

John Jay, secretary of foreign affairs, who had been au
thorized to institute a negotiation with the Spanish gov
ernment, laid the proposition before Congress, as a se
cret. The whole affair was veiled in darkness, and so
continued until the year 1818, when a resolution was
passed authorizing the publication of the secret journals
of the old Congress.

The proposition of Mr Jay created an angry excite
ment in Congress. The scheme was resisted, with great
warmth, by the States of Virginia, North Carolina, South
Carolina, Maryland and Georgia, on the following grounds:
1. It would dismember the union. 2. It would violate the
compact of the national government with those States
who had surrendered to it their western lands. 3. It
would check the growth of the western country by de
priving the inhabitants of a natural outlet for their pro
ductions. 4. It would depreciate the value of the west
ern lands, and sink proportionally a valuable fund for the
payment of the national debt. 5. It would be such a
sacrifice for particular purposes, as would be obvious to
the least discerning.

The proposition was sustained by all the New England
States, with New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
These States moved in solid phalanx, ". and in silence,
against every attempt to defeat, alter, or amend the pro
posed terms of negotiation. The opposition were in de
spair, when it occurred to them, that as the assent of
nine States was necessary by the confederation to form
treaties, the instructions given to Mr Jay were unconsti
tutional, inasmuch as seven States only had voted them.
A resolution was, therefore, introduced, declaring the
original vote which had been taken, incompetent to con
fer treaty making powers. But the reslution was neg
atived by the same States, in the same mysterious man
ner. A resolution was then offered, to. remove the in
junction of secrecy, which shared the same fate. Finally,
after a heated and protracted altercation, the minority

248 LIFE OF

succeeded so far as to obtain the authority to treat for an
entrepot at New Orleans, and for the navigation of the
Mississippi in common with Spain, down to the Floridas.
A hint of these transactions having reached the ears
of Mr Jefferson in Paris, he was exercised with the
greatest inquietude and alarm. He considered the aban
donment of the navigation of the Mississippi, as, ipse
facto, a dismemberment of the union ; and he improved
every occasion, in his letters to America, to impress on
the leading members of the government, the ungrateful
character and suicidal tendency of the measure. A
single specimen, found in a letter to Mr Madison, da
ted January 30, 87, will suffice to display the general
tenor of an active and extensive correspondence, for
several months, on this vitally interesting question.

* If these transactions [insurrections] give me no un
easiness, I feel very differently at another piece of intel
ligence, to wit, the possibility that the navigation of the
Mississippi may be abandoned to Spain. I never had
any interest westward of the Allegany ; and I never will
have any. But I have had great opportunities of know
ing the character of the people who inhabit that country ;
and I will venture to say, that the act which abandons
the navigation of the Mississippi, is an act of separation
between the eastern and western country. It is a relin-
quishment of five parts out of eight of the territory of
the United States; an abandonment of the fairest subject
for the payment of our public debts, and the chaining
those debts on our own necks, in pcrpetuum. I have the
utmost confidence in the honest intentions of those who
concur in this measure; but I lament their want of ac
quaintance with the character and physical advantages
of the people, who, right or wrong, will suppose their in
terests sacrificed on this occasion to the contrary inter
ests of that part of the confederacy in possession of pres
ent power. If they declare themselves a separate peo
ple, we are incapable of a single effort to retain them.
Our citizens can never be induced, either as militia or as
soldiers, to go there to cut the throats of their own broth-

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 249

ers and sons, or rather, to be themselves the subjects, in
stead of the perpetrators, of the parricide. Nor would
that country quit the cost of being retained against the
will of its inhabitants, could it be done. But it cannot
be done. They are able already to rescue the naviga
tion of the Mississippi out of the hands of Spain, and to
add New Orleans to their own territory. They will be
joined by the inhabitants of Louisiana. This will bring
on a war between them and Spain ; and that will pro
duce the question with us, whether it will not be worth
our while to become parties with them in the war, in or
der to re-unite them with us, and thus correct our error.
And were I to permit my forebodings to go one step far
ther, I should predict, that the inhabitants of the United
States would force their rulers to take the affirmative of
thai question. I wish I may be mistaken in all these
opinions.

The right of the United States to the free navigation
of the Mississippi, in its whole extent, and the establish
ment of that right upon an immovable basis, was a sub
ject which early engrossed the attention of Mr Jefferson.
He persevered in the effort through a period of fifteen
years, in different public stations ; and his agency in
producing the final result was scarcely less distinguished,
though less direct and efficacious, than in procuring the
acquisition of Louisiana. The question was not defini
tively settled until 1803, when, being at the head of the
nation, he appointed Mr Monroe minister to Madrid for
the express purpose of concluding a final arrangement
with that government, covering all the points at issue
growing out of the subject. The mission was as honor
able as it was successful.

Mr Jefferson s watchfulness over the interests of Ame
rica, while in Europe, was intense. Nothing escaped his
notice, which he thought could be made useful in his
own country. The southern States are indebted to him
for the introduction of the culture of upland rice. In.
1790, he procured a cask of this species of rice, from
22

250 LIFE OF

the river Denbigh in Africa, about latitude 9 deg. 30 min.
north, which he sent to Charleston, in the hope that it
would supersede the culture of the wet rice, which
renders South Carolina and Georgia so pestilential
through the summer. The quantity was divided at
Charleston, and a part sent to Georgia, by his directions.
The cultivation of this rice has now become general in
the upper parts of Georgia and South Carolina, and is
highly prized. It was supposed by Mr Jefferson, that
it might be raised successfully in Tennessee and Ken
tucky. He likewise endeavored to obtain the seed of
the Cochin-China rice, for the purpose of introducing
its cultivation in the same States ; but it does not appear
whether he was successful or not. In the same spirit of
attention to the interests of his country, he transmitted
from Marseilles to Charleston, a great variety of olive
plants, to be planted, by way of experiment in South
Carolina and Georgia. The greatest service, says he,
which can be rendered any country is, to add a useful
plant to its culture ; especially a bread grain ; next in
value to bread, is oil. These plants were tried, and
are now flourishing at the South. Though not yet mul
tiplied extensively, they have introduced that species of
cultivation in those States.

All the powers of Mr Jefferson seemed to kindle in
the pursuit of multiplying objects of profitable agricul
ture in America, and of improving the husbandry of
those already established as staples. With this view,
he made a tour into the south of France, and the
northern parts of Italy, in which he passed three months.
His plan was to visit the ports along the western and
southern coast of France, particularly Marseilles, Bor
deaux, Nantes, and L Orient, to obtain such information
as would enable him to judge of the practicability of
making farther improvements in our commerce with the
southern provinces of France ; to visit the canal of Lan-
guedoc, and possess himself of such information upon

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 251

that kind of navigation, as might be useful to his coun
trymen ; and thence to pass into the northern provinces
of Italy, to examine the different subjects of culture in
those munificent regions, and ascertain what improve
ments might be made in America, in the culture and
husbandry of rice and other staples common to both
countries ; and what other, if any, productions of that
climate might be advantageously introduced into the
southern States. Another object with him was to try
the mineral waters of Aix, in Provence, for a dislocated
wrist, unsuccessfully set.

He left Paris, therefore, on the 28th of February, 87,
and proceeded up the Seine, through Champagne and
Burgundy, and down the Rhone through the Beaujolais,
by Lyons, Avignon, Nismes, to Aix. Receiving no
benefit from the mineral waters of that place, he bent
his course into the rice countries of Italy. On his
return, he extended his journey through the south of
France, and arrived at Paris.

The novelty and variety of the scenes through which
he passed, the multitude of curious and interesting
objects which he encountered, presented a perpetual
feast to his enquiring mind. From Nice, under date of
April 19th, he writes to the Marquis de La Fayette :

I am constantly roving about to see what I have
never seen before, and shall never see again. In the
great cities, I go to see what travellers think alone wor
thy of being seen ; but I make a job of it, and generally
gulp it all down in a day. On the other hand, I am
never satiated with rambling through the fields and
farms, examining the culture and cultivators with a de
gree of curiosity, which makes some take me to be a
fool, and others to be much wiser than I am. * * *
From the first olive fields of Pierrelatte, to the orange
ries of Hieres, it has been continued rapture to me. I
have often wished for you. I think you have not made
this journey. It is a pleasure you have to come, and an
improvement to be added to the many you have already

252 LIFE OF

made. It will be a great comfort to you, to know, from
your own inspection, the condition of all the provinces
of your own country, and it will be interesting to them
at some future day, to be known to you. This is, per
haps, the only moment of your life, in which you can
acquire that knowledge. Arid to do it most effectually,
you must be absolutely incognito, you must ferret the
people out of their hovels, as I have done, look into their
kettles, eat their bread, loll on their beds under pretence
of resting yourself, but in fact to find if they are soft.
You will feel a sublime pleasure in the course of this .
investigation, and a sublimer one hereafter, when you
shall be able to apply your knowledge to the softening
of their beds, or the throwing a morsel of meat into their
kettle of vegetables.

From Lyons to Nismes Mr Jefferson was nourished
with the remains of Roman grandeur.* He was im
mersed in antiquities from morning to night. He was
transported back to the times of the Cassars, the intrigues
of their courts, the oppressions of their prastors, and
prefects. To him the city of Rome, as he averred,
seemed actually existing in all the magnificence of its
meridian glory ; and he was filled with alarm in the
momentary anticipation of the irruptions of the Goths,
Visigoths, Ostrogoths, and Vandals. Under date of
Nismes, he writes to the Countess de Tesse, in a mood
which evinced the extravagance of his passion for an
cient architecture :

4 Here I am, Madam, gazing whole hours at the Mai-
son Quarree, like a lover at his mistress. The stocking-
weavers and silk-spinners around it, consider me as an
hypochondriac Englishman, about to write with a pistol
the last chapter of his history. This is the second time
I have been in love since 1 left Paris. The first was
with a Diana at the Chateau de Lay-Epinaye in Beau-
jolais, a delicious morsel of sculpture, by M. A. Slodtz.
This, you will say, was in rule, to fall in love with a
female beauty : but with a house ! It is out of all pre
cedent. No, Madam, it is not without a precedent, in

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 253

my own history. While in Paris, I was violently smitten
with the Hotel de Salm, and used to go to the Tuileries,
almost daily to look at it. The loueuse des chaises, inat
tentive to my passion, never had the complaisance to
place a chair there, so that, sitting on the parapet, and
twisting my neck round to see the object of my admira
tion, I generally left it with a torticolis.

Mr Jefferson kept a diary of his excursion into Italy,
in which he noted with minuteness, every circumstance
which he thought might be made useful or instructive to
his countrymen. Of these notes, which covered about
fifty printed octavo pages, he made copies on his return,
and transmitted them to General Washington and others
in America, as containing hints capable of being improv
ed to the benefit of the United States. His course of
observation supplied him with materials for benefiting
the commerce of the United States, in some essential
particulars, for improving the quality in articles of staple
growth, and increasing the subjects of cultivation, in
some States. At Turin, Milan, and Genoa, he satisfied
himself of the practicability of introducing our whale
oil, for their consumption, and that of the other great
cities of that country. The merchants with whom he
asked conferences, met him freely, and communicated
frankly ; but not being authorized to conclude a formal
negotiation, he could only cultivate a general disposition
to receive our oil merchants. He put matters into a
train for inducing their governments to draw their to
bacco directly from the United States, and not, as here
tofore, from Great Britain. He procured the seeds of
three different species of rice, from Piedmont, Lom-
bardy, and the Levant, divided each quantity into three
separate parcels, and forwarded them by as many dif
ferent conveyances, to Charleston, in order to ensure a
safe arrival. He questioned the utility of engaging in
the cultivation of the vine in the southern States, under
the present circumstances of their population. Wines

22*

254 LIFE OF

were so cheap in those countries, that a laborer with us,
employed in the culture of any other article, might ex
change it for wine, more and better than he could raise
himself. It might, hereafter, become a profitable re
source to us, when a more dense population shall have
increased our supply of raw materials beyond the demand
at home and abroad. Instead of augmenting the useless
surplus of them, the supernumerary hands might then be
employed on the vine. The introduction of the fig, the
mulberry, and the olive, he strongly recommended to the
cultivators in the southern parts of the United States.
With jthe olive tree, in particular, he was so pleased,
that he declared it next to the most precious, if not the
most precious of all the gifts of heaven to man. He
thought, perhaps, it might claim a preference even to
bread, considering the infinitude of vegetables, to which
it added a proper and comfortable nutriment.

As in commerce and agriculture, so in the manufac
turing interest, Mr Jefferson was indefatigable in en
deavoring to benefit his country. Of every new inven
tion and discovery in the arts, he was prompt to commu
nicate the earliest ^intelligence to Congress, or to indi
vidual artists and professors. Among these, the most
remarkable were the principle of stereotyping, which he
communicated in 1786 ; and the mode of constructing
muskets, which he communicated about the same time,
It consisted in making all. the parts of the musket so
exactly alike, as that, mixed together promiscuously,
any one part should serve equally for every musket in
the magazine. * Of those improvements which were
claimed as original in Europe, but of which America
was entitled to the merit of a prior discovery, his know
ledge enabled him to detect the imposition, and his pa-

* This attempt has never been completely successful in Europe
or America, until accomplished by captain Hall, in the manufac
ture of his improved rifle. He is now exclusively employed by the
United States, at Harper s Ferry, Va.

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 255

triotism incited him to vindicate the honor of his own
countrymen. This was in fact the case in several in
stances.

In the sciences and the fine arts, Mr Jefferson was
equally assiduous to advance the reputation of his rising
country. His letters to president Stiles, to the presi
dent of William and Mary College, to the president of
Harvard University, to Rittenhouse, Charles Thompson
and others, are illustrations of his zeal and efficiency in
these pursuits.

Their advances in science and in the arts of sculpture,
painting and music, were the only things, he declared,
for which he envied the people of France ; and for these
he absolutely did envy them. His passion for the few
remains of ancient architecture which existed, was un
bounded, and his efforts unremitting for introducing
samples of them in America, for the purpose of encour
aging a style of architecture analogous to the Roman
model. In June, 1785, he received a request from the
directors of the public buildings in Virginia, to procure
and transmit them plans for the capitol, palace, <fcc.
He immediately engaged an architect of great abilities,
for this purpose, and directed him to take for his model
the Maison Quarrec of Nismes, which he considered the
most precious and perfect morsel of antiquity in exist
ence. But what was his surprise and regret on learn
ing, a short time after, that the buildings were actually
begun, without waiting for the receipt of his plans.
Pray try, he writes to Mr Madison, if you can effect
the stopping of this work. The loss is not to be weighed
in the saving of money which will arise, against the comfort
of laying out the public money for something honorable,
the satisfaction of seeing an object and proof of national
good taste, and the regret and mortification of erecting
a monument of our barbarism, which will be loaded with
execrations as long as it shall endure. You see I am
an enthusiast on the subject of the arts. But it is an

256 LIFE OF

enthusiasm of which I am not ashamed, as its object is
to improve the taste of my countrymen, to increase their
reputation, to reconcile to them the respect of the world,
and procure them its praise.

The specimens we have given exhibit but a slender
outline of a series of correspondence, public and private,
comprising more than three hundred letters, chiefly to
his friends in the United States, all breathing the same
devotion to the interests of his country, in every imagin
able department, from the most intricate points of ab
stract science, and the most momentous questions of na
tional policy, down to essays on the most simple processes
in agriculture and domestic economy. He was at the same
time in habits of correspondence with many distinguished
characters, literary and political, in most of the nations
of Europe. His philosophical reputation and powers
established him in ready favor with the constellation of
bold thinkers, which then illuminated France ; and much
of his attention was necessarily, perhaps advantageously,
occupied in the metaphysical discussions of the day. He
was on terms of intimacy with the Abbe Morellet, Con-
dorcet, D Alembert, Mirabeau, &c ; and he renewed his
discussion in natural science, with Mons. de Buffon, to
whom he had already given such a foretaste of his abili-*
ties, in his Notes on Virginia. The ladies of that gay
capital, who maintain so powerful an ascendency in all
its circles, were delighted in his society, and pressed him
into their correspondence. At the solicitation of the
authors of the Encyclopedic Methodique, the most popu
lar work then publishing in Paris, Mr Jefferson prepared
for insertion several articles on the United States, giving
a history of the government, from its origin to the adop
tion of the constitution. One of the authors of that
work had made the society of the Cincinnati the subject
of a libel on our government and its great military lead
er. But before committing it to the press, he submitted
it to Mr Jefferson for examination. He found it a tissue

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 257

of errors, a mere philippic against the institution, in which
there appeared an utter ignorance of facts and motives,
He wrote over the whole article; in which he vindicated
the motives of General Washington and his brother offi
cers from every liability to reproach. His own opinions,
however, of the ultimate effects of that institution, un
derwent such a change during his residence in Europe,
as induced him to recommend its total extinction ; which
he did, in a letter to General Washington, November
1786.

Such are some of the numerous and diversified servi
ces performed by Mr Jefferson in his private, unofficial
capacity. The circumstance ought not to be overlooked,
that these attentions to the general interests of the Unit
ed States, were exercised amidst the labors and anxie
ties of a multiplicity of public avocations. His diplo
matic correspondence with the Count de Vergennes, the
most subtile and powerful minister in Europe, was unin
terrupted, and in point of urgency in behalf of America,
remains unrivalled. His correspondence with the bankers
of the United States at Amsterdam and Paris, to pre
serve the credit of the United States, was constant, and
laborious ; and his exertions for the redemption of Amer
ican captives at Algiers, for establishing a general coali
tion of all the civilized powers against the piratical
States, and, on the failure of that, for negotiating treaties
of peace with them, on the most favorable terms, have
seldom been equalled.

But of all the private labors of Mr Jefferson in behalf
of his country, none were more useful, none more praise
worthy and patriotic, than those which were directed to
the moral improvement of the rising generation. It was
to them he looked, and not to those then on the stage,
for the perfection of the glorious political work which he
had exhausted every resource and sacrificed every com
fort in advancing; and his ambition appeared insatiable
to fashion their minds, their habits, their tastes and prin
ciples, after the model of the generation of 76,

258 LIFE OF

It was Mr Jefferson s fortune to be an eye-witness of
the opening scenes of that tremendous revolution, which
began so gloriously and ended so terribly for France.
The immediate and exciting cause of this struggle for
political reformation, he ascribes to the influence of the
American example and American ideas. In his notes on
that event, he says :

4 The American revolution seems first to have awaken
ed the thinking part of the French nation, in general,
from the sleep of despotism into which they were sunk.
The officers, too, who had been to America, were most
ly young men, less shackled by habit and prejudice, and
more ready to assent to the suggestions of common
sense, and feeling of common rights, than others. They
came back to France with new ideas and impressions.
The press, notwithstanding its shackles, began to dissem
inate them ; conversation assumed new freedoms ; pol
itics became the theme of all societies, male and female ;
and a very extensive and zealous party was formed, which
acquired the appellation of the patriotic party, who, sen
sible of the abusive government under which they lived,
sighed for occasions for reforming it. This party com
prehended all the honesty of the kingdom sufficiently at
leisure to think, the men of letters, the easy Bourgeois,
the young nobility, partly from reflection, partly from
mode ; for these sentiments became matter of mode, and,
as such, united most of the young women to the party.

The part sustained by Mr Jefferson in the early stages
of the French revolution, was of a weighty and promi
nent character. It has not yet been incorporated into
written history, but the late revelation of his cabinet to
the world will soon place it there, when it will constitute
one of the most interesting features of his posthumous
reputation.

Possessing the confidence and intimacy of many of
the leading patriots, and more than all, of the Marquis
de la Fayette, their head and Atlas, he was consulted by
them, at every step, on measures of importance ; and

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 259

the prudence of his counsels, which were implicitly fol
lowed while they could have the benefit of them, retard
ed the moment of convulsion and civil war until after his
withdrawal from the scene of action. Coming from a
country which had successfully passed through a similar
struggle, his acquaintance was eagerly sought, and his
opinions carried with them an authority almost oracular.
In attempting the redress of present grievances, he re
commended a mild and gradual reformation of abuses,
one after another, at suitable intervals, so as not to re
volt the conciliatory dispositions of the king ; and in pro
viding against their recurrence in future, by remodelling
the principles of the government, he recommended cau
tious approaches to republicanism, to give time for the
growth of public opinion, and work a peaceable regene
ration of the political system, by slow and successive im
provements through a series of years. The interest he
felt in the passing revolution, and his anxiety for the final
result, were very great. He considered a successful
reformation of government in France, as insuring a gen
eral reformation through Europe, and the resurrection to
a new life of a people now ground to dust by the op
pressions of the constituted powers.

He went daily from Paris to Versailles, to attend the
debates of the States General, and continued there until
the hour of adjournment. This assembly had been con
vened as a mediatorial power between the government
and the people ; and it was well understood that the king
would now concede, 1, Freedom of the person by ha
beas corpus ; 2, Freedom of conscience ; 3, Freedom of
the press ; 4, Trial by jury ; 5, A representative legis
lature ; 6, Annual meetings ; 7, The origination of
laws ; 8, The exclusive right of taxation and appropri
ation ; and 9, The responsibility of ministers. Mr Jef
ferson urged most strenuously, an immediate compro
mise, upon the basis of these concessions ; and the in
stant adjournment of the assembly for a year. They

260 LIFE OF

came from the very heart of the king, who had not a
wish but for the good of the nation ; and these improve
ments, if accepted and carried into effect, he had no
doubt would be maintained during the present reign,
which would be long enough for them to take some root
in the constitution, and be consolidated by the attach
ment of the nation.

He most eagerly contended they could obtain in fu
ture, whatever might be farther necessary to improve
their constitution, and perfect their freedom and happi
ness. They thought otherwise, however, says he, and
events have proved their lamentable error. For, after
thirty years of war, foreign and domestic, the loss of
millions of lives, the prostration of private happiness,
and the foreign subjugation of their own country for a
time, they have obtained no more, nor even that secure
ly. They were unconscious of (for who could foresee ?)
the melancholy sequel of their well-meant perseverance ;
that their physical force would be usurped by a tyrant to
trample on the independence, and even the existence, of
other nations ; that this would afford a fatal example for
the atrocious conspiracy of kings against their people ;
would generate their unholy and homicidal alliance to
make common cause among themselves, and to crush by
the power of the whole, the efforts of any part, to mod
erate their abuses and oppressions.

In the evening of August 4th, on motion of the Vis
count de Noailles, brother-in-law of La Fayette, the as
sembly abolished all titles of rank, all the abusive privi
leges of feudalism, the tythes and casuals of the clergy,
all provincial privileges, and in fine the feudal regimen
generally. Many days were employed in putting into
the form of laws, the numerous revocations of abuses :
after which they proceeded to the preliminary work of a
declaration of rights. An instrument of this kind had
been prepared by Mr Jefferson and La Fayette, and sub
mitted to the assembly by the latter on the llth of July ;

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 261

but the sudden occurrence of acts of violence had sus
pended all proceedings upon it. There being much con
cord of opinion on the elements of this instrument, it was
liberally framed, and passed with a very general appro
bation. They then appointed a committee to prepare a
projet of a constitution ; at the head of which was the
archbishop of Bordeaux. From him, in the name of
the committee, Mr Jefferson received a letter, request
ing him to attend and assist at their deliberations. But
he excused himself, on the obvious considerations that
his mission was to the king, as chief magistrate of the
nation, that his duties were limited to the concerns of
his own country, and forbade his intermeddling with the
internal transactions of France, where he had been re
ceived under a specific character only.

In this critical state of things, Mr Jefferson received
a note from the Marquis la Fayette, informing him that
he should bring a party of six or eight friends, to ask a
dinner of him the next day. He assured him of their
welcome. When they came, there were La Fayette him
self and seven others, leaders of the different divisions
of the reform party, but honest men, and sensible of the
necessity of effecting a coalition by mutual sacrifices.
Their object in soliciting this conference, was to avail
themselves of the counsel and mediation of the Ameri
can minister, and to effect a reconciliation upon terms
which he should prescribe. The discussions began at the
hour of four, and were continued till ten o clock in the
evening ; during which Mr Jefferson was witness to a
* coolness and candor of argument unusual in political
conflicts, to a logical reasoning, and a chaste eloquence,
disfigured by no gaudy tinsel of rhetoric or declamation,
which he thought worthy of being placed in parallel with
the finest dialogues of antiquity, as handed to us by
Xenophen, by Plato, and Cicero.

The result of this conference decided the fate of the
French constitution. It was mutually agreed, on the ad-
23

262

LIFE OF

vice of Mr Jefferson, that the king should have a suspen
sive veto on the laws ; that the legislature should be
composed of a single body only ; and that it should be
chosen by the people. This agreement united the patriots
on a common ground. They all rallied to the principles
thus settled, carried every question agreeably to them,
and reduced the aristocracy to impotence and insignifi
cance.

But duties of exculpation were now incumbent upon
Mr Jefferson. He waited the next morning on Count
Montmorin, minister of foreign affairs, and explained to
him with truth and candor, how it happened that his
house had been made the scene of conferences of such
a character. Montmorin told him he already knew every
thing which had passed ; that so far from taking umbrage
at his conduct on that occasion, he earnestly wished he
would habitually assist at such conferences, being satisfi
ed he would be useful in moderating the warmer spirits,
and promoting a wholesome and practicable reformation
only. Mr Jefferson told him he knew too well the duties
he owed to the king, to the nation, and to his own coun
try, to take any part in the transactions of their internal
government ; and that he should persevere, with care, in
the character of a neutral and passive spectator, with
wishes only, and very sincere ones, that those measures
might prevail, which would be for the greatest good of
the nation. * I have no doubt, indeed, says Mr Jeffer
son, that this conference was previously known and ap
proved by this honest minister, who was in confidence
and communication with the patriots, and wished for a
reasonable reformation of the constitution.

At this auspicious stage of the French revolution, Mr
Jefferson retired from the scene of action ; and the wis
dom and moderation of his counsels ceased with the op
portunities of imparting them. He left France, with
warm and unabated expectations that no serious commo
tion would take place, and that the nation would soon

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 263

settle down in the quiet enjoyment of a great degree
of acquired liberty, to go on improving its condition
by future and successive ameliorations, but never to
retrograde. The example of the United States had
been viewed as their model on all occasions, and with an
authority like that of the bible, open to explanation, but
not to question. The king had now become a passive
machine in the hands of the national assembly, and had
he been left to himself, would probably have acquiesced
in their determinations. A wise constitution would have
been formed, hereditary in his line, himself at its head,
with powers so large as to enable him to execute all the
good of his station, and so limited as to restrain him from
its abuse. This constitution he would have faithfully ad
ministered, and more than this he never wished. Such
was the belief and the hope of Mr Jefferson ; and to one
source alone, he ascribed the overthrow of all these fond
anticipations, and the deluge of crimes and cruelties
which subsequently desolated France. To the despotic
and disastrous influence of a single woman, he attributed
the horrible catastrophe of the French revolution !

But he had a queen of absolute sway over his weak
mind and timid virtue, and of a character the reverse of
his in all points. This angel, as gaudily painted in
the rhapsodies of Burke, with some smartness of fancy,
but no sound sense, was proud, disdainful of restraint,
indignant at all obstacles to her will, eager in the pur
suit of pleasure, and firm enough to hold to her desires,
or perish in their wreck. Her inordinate gambling and
dissipations, with those of the Count d Artois, and
others of her clique, had been a sensible item in the ex
haustion of the treasury, which called into action the re
forming hand of the nation ; and her opposition to it,
her inflexible perverseness, and dauntless spirit, led her
self to the guillotine, drew the king on with her, and
plunged the world into crimes and calamities which wilJ
for ever stain the pages of modern history. 1 have ever
believed, that had there been no queen, there would
have been no revolution. No force would have been

264 1.1 VV. OF

provoked, nor exercised. The king would have gone
hand in hand with the wisdom of his sounder counsel
lors, who, guided by the increased lights of the age,
wished only, with the same pace, to advance the prin
ciples of their social constitution. The deed which
closed the mortal course of these sovereigns, I shall
neither approve nor condemn. I am not prepared to
say, that the first magistrate of a nation cannot commit
treason against his country, or is unamenable to its
punishment : nor yet, that where there is no written
law, no regulated tribunal, there is not a law in our
hearts, and a power in our hands, given for righteous
employment in maintaining right, and redressing wrong.
Of those who judged the king, many thought him wil
fully criminal ; many, that his existence would keep the
nation in perpetual conflict with the horde of kings, who
would war against a regeneration which might come
home to themselves, and that it were better that one
should die than all. I should not have voted with this
portion of the legislature. I should have shut up the
queen in a convent, putting harm out of her power, and
placed the king in his station, investing him with limited
powers, which, I verily believe, he would have honestly
exercised, according to the measure of his understand
ing. In this way, no void would have been created,
courting the usurpation of a military adventurer, nor oc
casion given for those enormities which demoralized the
nations of the world, and destroyed, and is yet to de
stroy, millions and millions of its inhabitants.

Mr Jefferson had been more than a year soliciting
leave to return to America, with a view to place his
daughters in the society of their friends, to attend to
some domestic arrangements of pressing moment, and
to resume his station for a short time, at Paris ; but it
was not until the last of August that he received the
permission desired.

The generous tribute which he has paid to the French
nation, at this point in his auto-biographical notes, dis
closes the state of feeling with which he quitted a coun
try, where he had passed so various and useful a por
tion of his public life.

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 265

* And here I cannot leave this great and good country,
without expressing my sense of its pre-eminence of cha
racter among the nations of the earth. A more benevo
lent people 1 have never known, nor greater warmth and
devotedness in their select friendships. Their kindness
and accommodation to strangers is unparalleled, and the
hospitality of Paris is beyond any thing I had conceived
to be practicable in a large city. Their eminence, too,
in science, the communicative dispositions of their
scientific men, the politeness of the general manners,
the ease and vivacity of their conversation, give a charm
to their society, to be found no where else, In a com
parison of this with other countries, we have the proof
of primacy, which was given to Themistocles after the
battle of Salamis. Every general voted to himself the
first reward of valor, and the second to Themistocles.
So, ask the travelled inhabitant of any nation, in what
country on earth would you rather live ? Certainly,
in my own, where are all my friends, my relations, and
the earliest and sweetest affections and recollections
of my life. Which would be your second choice ?
France.

On the 26th of September, 1789, Mr Jefferson left
Paris for America. lie was detained at Havre by con
trary winds, until the 8th of October, when he crossed
over to Cowes, where he was again detained by contrary
winds, until the 22tl, when he embarked and landed at
Norfolk, Virginia, on the 23d of November. On his
way to Monticello he passed some days at Eppington,
in Chesterfield county, the residence of his friend and
connection, Mr Eppes ; and while there he received a
letter from the president, General Washington, by ex
press, covering an appointment of secretary of State to
the new government. Gratifying as was this high testi
monial of his public estimation, the highest in the power
of the president to confer, he nevertheless received it
with real regret. His wish had been to return to Paris,
where he had left his household establishment, to see
the end of the revolution, which he then thought would
23*

266 LIFE OP

be certainly and happily closed in less than a year, and
to make that the epoch of his retirement from all pub
lic employments. I then meant, says he, to return
home, to withdraw from political life, into which I had
been impressed by the circumstances of the times, to
sink into the bosom of my family and friends, and de
vote myself to studies more congenial to my mind. In
a letter to Mr Madison, a short time before leaving Paris,
he writes : You ask me if I would accept any appoint
ment on that side of the water ? You know the circum
stances which led me from retirement, step by step, and
from one nomination to another, up to the present.
My object is a return to the same retirement. When,
therefore, I quit the present, it will not be to engage in
any other office, arid most especially any one which
would require a constant residence from home. 1 In a
letter to another friend in Virginia, the same sentiment
is pursued : Your letter has kindled all the fond recol
lections of ancient times ; recollections much dearer to
me than any thing I have known since. There are
minds which can be pleased by honors and preferments ;
but I see nothing in them but envy and enmity. It is
only necessary to possess them, to know how little they
contribute to happiness, or rather how hostile they are
to it. No attachments soothe the mind so much as
those contracted in early life ; nor do I recollect any
societies which have given me more pleasure, than those
of which you have partaken with me. I had rather be
shut up in a very modest cottage, with my books, my
family, and a few old friends, dining on simple bacon,
and letting the world roll on as it liked, than to occupy
the most splendid post, which any human power can
give.

In his answer to the president, under date of Decem
ber 15th, he expressed these dispositions frankly, and
his preference of a return to Paris ; but assured him at
the same time, that if it was believed he could be more

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 267

useful in the administration of the government, he would
sacrifice his own inclinations without hesitation, and
repair to that destination. He arrived at Monticello,
on the 23d of December, where he received a second
letter from the president, expressing his continued wishes
that he would accept the department of State, if not
absolutely irreconcilable with his inclinations. This
silenced his reluctance, and he accepted the new ap
pointment. He left Monticello on the 1st of March,
1790, arrived at New-York, the then seat of govern
ment, on the 21st, and immediately entered on the du
ties of his station.

In the short interval which he passed at Monticello,
his eldest daughter was married to Thomas M. Ran
dolph, eldest son of the Tuckahoe branch of Randolphs,
who afterwards filled a dignified station in the general
government, and, at length, the executive chair of Vir
ginia for a number of years.

268 LIFE OP

CHAPTER X.

MR JEFFERSON S arrival at the seat of government, in
the character of secretary of State, completed the or
ganization of the first administration under the present
constitution of the United States. The new system had
been in operation about one year. George Washington
had been unanimously elected president, and inaugura
ted on the 30th of April, 1789. John Adams was
vice president ; Alexander Hamilton, secretary of the
treasury ; Henry Knox, secretary of war ; and Ed
mund Randolph, attorney general.

Of this cabinet, Alexander Hamilton was enjoying
the unlimited confidence of the president ; and acquired
a preponderating influence in directing the measures of
the administration. But his political opinions, with such
advantages of personal ascendency, rendered him per
haps a dangerous minister at this crisis of our present
government. The political character of the secretary
of the treasury, is drawn with a discriminating hand
by Mr Jefferson, in his private memoranda of that
period.

A conversation began on other matters, by some cir
cumstance, was led to the British Constitution, on which
Mr Adams observed, " Purge that constitution of its
corruption, and give to its popular branch equality of
representation, and it would be the most perfect constitu
tion ever devised by the wit of man." Hamilton paused
and said, " Purge it of its corruption, and give to its

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 269

popular branch equality of representation, and it would
become an impracticable government ; as it stands at
present, with all its supposed defects, it is the most per
fect government which ever existed." And this was as
suredly the exact line which separated the political creeds
of these two gentlemen. The one was for two hereditary
branches and an honest elective one ; the other for an
hereditary king, with a house of lords and commons
corrupted to his will, and standing between him and the
people. Hamilton was, indeed, a singular character.
Of acute understanding, disinterested, honest, and hon
orable in all private transactions, amiable in society, and
duly valuing virtue in private life, yet so bewitched and
perverted by the British example, as to be under thorough
conviction that corruption was essential to the govern
ment of a nation. J

The following note of a conversation with Mr Hamil
ton, dated August 13th, 1791, presents a more favorable
view of his sentiments, and seems due to him as a matter
of justice.

4 Alexander Hamilton, in condemning Mr Adams writ
ings, and most particularly Davila, as having a tendency
to weaken the present government, declared in substance
as follows : " I own it is my own opinion, though I do
not publish it in Dan or Beersheba, that the present gov
ernment is not that which will answer the ends of society,
by giving stability and protection to its rights, and that
it will probably be found expedient to go into the British
form. However, since we have undertaken the experi
ment, I am for giving it a fair course, whatever my ex
pectations may be. The success, indeed, so far, is greater
than I had expected, and therefore, at present, success
seems more possible than it had done heretofore, and
there are still other stages of improvement, which, if
the present does not succeed, may be tried, and ought
to be tried, before we give up the republican form al
together ; for that mind must be really depraved, which
would not prefer the equality of political rights, which
is the foundation of pure republicanism, if it can be
obtained consistently with order. Therefore, whoever
by his writings disturbs the present order of things,

270 LIFE OF

is really blameable, however pure his intentions may be,
and he was sure Mr Adams were pure." This is the
substance of a declaration made in much more lengthy
terms, and which seemed to be more formal than usual
for a private conversation between two, and as if intend
ed to qualify some less guarded expressions which had
been dropped on former occasions. Th. Jefferson has
committed it to writing in the moment of A. Hamilton s
leaving the room.

Such were the strong aristocratical elements which
entered into the composition of General Washington s
cabinet. Against this weight of opinion, Mr Jefferson
constituted the great republican check, and the only one,
except on some occasions, when he was supported by
the attorney general.

No other office under tbc government of the United
States, comprehends so wide a range of objects, or in
volves duties of such magnitude, as the department of
State. It embraces the whole mass of foreign, and the
principal of the domestic administration. To the first
order of capacity, and the greatest versatility of talent,
it is indispensable that the organ of this important de
partment should unite an intimate and extensive know
ledge of the foreign and domestic relations of the coun
try, a familiarity with the object and duties of govern
ment, and a profound acquaintance with history and hu
man nature. If these qualifications are rightly deemed
essential in ordinary times and under any circumstan
ces, how much more was their possession necessary, at
the opening of the new government ? Before it had
formed a character among nations, and when the im
pulse and direction which should then be given to it,
would establish that character, perhaps forever 1 Be
fore its internal faculties and capabilities were developed,
but while they were in the process of development ?
The share which Mr Jefferson had in marshalling the
domestic resources of the republic, and fixing them upon
a lucrative foundation, in shaping the subordinate fea-

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 271

tures of its political organization, and, more especially,
in establishing the principles of its foreign policy, con
stitutes one of the most important epochs in his public
history.

Among his labors which were of a character not
necessarily appertaining to the duties of his department,
and, indeed, belonging more properly to some one or
more of the ordinary committees of Congress, were

Report of a plan for establishing a uniform system
of coins, weights and measures in the United States.

Report on the cod and whale fisheries.

Report on the commerce and navigation of the United
States.

They were of a peculiar nature, growing out of the
infancy of the republic, and the imperfect development
and organization of its resources ; and as such their
execution, in a faithful and satisfactory manner, required
an accurate knowledge of the condition of the country,
with the exercise of the most patient investigation and
varied practical talents. The manner in which these
difficult and important trusts were discharged by Mr
Jefferson, commanded the admiration of his country.

1. The report of the secretary of State containing a
plan for establishing a uniform system of coins, weights
and measures, was executed with uncommon dispatch,
considering the intricacy of the subject, and the novelty
of the experiment. He received the order of Congress
on the 15th of April, 1790, when an illness of several
weeks supervened, which, with the pressure of other
business, retarded his entering upon the undertaking
until some time in the ensuing month. He finished it,
however, on the 20th of May. One branch of the sub
ject, that of coins, had already received his attention,
while a member of Congress, in 1784 ; and it had then
occurred to him, that a corresponding uniformity in the
kindred branches, of weights and measures, would be

272 LIFE OF

easy of introduction, and a desirable improvement. But
the idea was not pursued by him, except for his own
private gratification ; having procured an odometer of
curious construction upon this principle. He used to
carry it, when travelling, and note the distances in miles,
cents and mills.

In sketching the principles of his system, Mr Jeffer
son was dependent on his own judgment. It was in
vain to look to the nations of the old world, for an ex
ample to direct him in his researches. No such exam
ple existed. It should be remarked, however, that two
of the principal European governments, France and
England, were at this very period, learnedly engaged on
the same subject.

The first object which presented itself to his enquiries,
was the discovery of some measure of invariable length,
as a standard. This was found to be a matter of no
small difficulty.

There exists not in nature, as far as has been hither
to observed, a single subject or species of subject, acces
sible to man, which presents one constant and uniform
dimension.

4 The globe of the earth itself, indeed, might be con
sidered as invariable in all its dimensions, and that its
circumference would furnish an invariable measure : but
no one of its circles, great or small, is accessible to ad
measurement through all its parts ; and the various trials,
to measure definite portions of them, have been of such
various result, as to show there is no dependence on that
operation for certainty.

* Matter, then, by its mere extension, furnishing no
thing invariable, its motion is the only remaining re
source.

The motion of the earth round its axis, though not
absolutely uniform and invariable, may be considered as
such for every human purpose. It is measured obvi
ously, but unequally, by the departure of a given me
ridian from the sun, and its return to it, constituting a

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 273

solar day. Throwing together the inequalities of solar
days, a mean interval, or day, has been found, and di
vided, by very general consent, into eighty-six thousand
four hundred equal parts.

A pendulum, vibrating freely, in small and equal
arcs, may be so adjusted in its length, as, by its vibra
tions, to make this division of the earth s motion into
eighty-six thousand four hundred equal parts, called
seconds of mean time.

4 Such a pendulum, then, becomes itself a measure of
determinate length, to which all others may be referred,
as to a standard.

But even the pendulum was not without its uncer
tainties. Among these, not the least was the fact, that
the period of its vibrations varied in different latitudes.
To obviate this objection, he proposed to fix on some
one latitude to which the standard should refer. That
of 38 deg. being the mean latitude of the United States,
he adopted it at first; but afterwards, on receiving a
printed copy of a proposition of the bishop of Autun to
the national assembly of France, in which the author
had recommended the 45th deg., he concluded to substi
tute that in the room of 38 deg., for the sake of uni
formity with a nation, with whom we were connected in
commerce ; and in the hope that it might become a line
of union with the rest of the world.

Having adopted the pendulum vibrating seconds in the
45th deg. of latitude, as a standard of invariable length,
he proceeded to identify, by that, the measures, weights
and coins of the United States. But, unacquainted Avith
the extent of reformation meditated by Congress, he
submitted two plans. First, on the supposition that the
difficulty of changing the established habits of a whole
nation, opposed an insuperable bar to a radical refor
mation, he proposed that the present weights and meas
ures should be retained, but be rendered uniform, by
bringing them to the same invariable standard. Second
ly, on the hypothesis that an entire reformation was
24

274 LIFE OF

contemplated, he proposed the adoption of a unit of
measure, to which the whole system of weights and
measures should be reduced, with divisions and subdi
visions in the decimal ratio, corresponding to the uni
formity already established in the coins of the United
States. On the whole, he was inclined to a general
reformation, with a view to make the denominations of
weights and measures conform to those already intro
duced into the currency of the country. The facility
which such an improvement would establish in the vul
gar arithmetic, would be soon and sensibly felt by the
mass of the people ; who would thereby be enabled to
compute for themselves, whatever they should have oc
casion to buy, sell, or measure, which the present diffi
cult and complicated ratios, for the most part, place be
yond their computation. In the event of its being
adopted, however, he recommended a gradual reduction
of it to practice. A progressive introduction would
lessen the inconveniences, which might attend too sud
den a substitution, even of an easier, for a more diffi
cult system. After a given term, for instance, it might
begin in the custom houses, where the merchants would
become familiarized to it. After a farther term, it
might be introduced into all legal proceedings ; and
merchants and traders in foreign commodities might be
required to use it. After a still farther term, all other
descriptions of persons might receive it into common
use. Too long a postponement, on the other hand,
would increase the difficulties of its reception, with the
increase of our population.

This report is a curious and learned document, valua
ble to the statesman and philosopher ; though, for the
same reasons, not calculated to interest the general
reader. It was submitted to Congress on the 13th of
July, 1790, and referred to a committee who reported in
/avor of a general reformation, on the principles re
commended by the author. But the subject was post-

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 275

poned from session to session, for several years, without
receiving a final determination ; and at length, became
lost altogether in the crowd of more important matters.
The idea of reducing to a single standard the discordant
ratios of coins, weights and measures, has ever since,
at different intervals, engaged the attention of learned
statesmen in England, France, Spain and America ; but
a fear of encountering the difficulties of a change of
familiar denominations, with a natural attachment to
established usage, has hitherto prevented the introduc
tion of a general uniformity in the systems of either
country.

2. The report of the secretary of State on the cod
and whale fisheries of the United States, is one of those
ancient State papers which, unlike the innumerable mul
titude that perish with the occasion, seem destined to be
perpetual. The subject was referred to him by Con
gress, on the 9th of August, 1790, in consequence of a
representation from the legislature of Massachusetts,
setting forth the embarrassments under which those
great branches of their business labored, and soliciting
the interference of the government in various ways.

This sound and energetic report was submitted to
Congress on the 4th of February, 1791. It was accept
ed, published, and applauded by the great majority of the
people. The policy so urgently recommended by Mr
Jefferson, was adopted ; and its utility was soon demon
strated, by the restoration to the United States, upon a
prosperous and permanent footing, of one of their most
important branches of domestic and maritime industry.

3. The report of the secretary of State on commerce
and navigation. This paper was prepared in pursuance
of a resolution of the house of representatives, passed
on the 23d of February, 1791, instructing him to report
to Congress the nature and extent of the privileges and
restrictions of the commercial intercourse of the United
States with foreign nations, and the measures which he

276

LIFE OF

should think proper to be adopted for the improvement
of their commerce and navigation.

The administration of the foreign affairs of the repub
lic devolving, ex officio, on the secretary of State, the
principal of his labors emanate from that source. Be
ing the organ of communication between the government
and foreign nations, the preparing and communica
ting instructions to our ministers of every grade at the
different courts, and the answering those of foreign min
isters of every grade resident in the United States, con
stitute a perpetual routine of arduous and complicated
duties. Perhaps there was never a period in our history,
in which these duties were more onerous and multiplied,
than during the years 1791, 92, and 93. The United
States were at issue, on the most delicate points of con
troversy, with England, France, and Spain ; and finally,
the coalition of European despots against republican
France, drove our government into the necessity of main
taining a strict and impartial neutrality towards the bel
ligerent parties the most difficult posture it was ever
called on to assume.

With Spain, difficulties had arisen of a serious char
acter. They concerned chiefly the navigation of the
Mississippi below our southern limit, the right to which
was still withheld ; the settlement of boundaries between
the two nations ; and the interference, on the part of
Spain, with the tribes of Indians in our territories, in
citing them to frequent and ferocious depredations on
our citizens.

On all these points the talents of the secretary of State
were constantly exercised in communicating and enforc
ing the opinions of the administration. On the subject
of the Mississippi, his instructions to our minister at
Madrid were rigorous and uncompromising. He insist
ed that the United States had a right riot only to the un
molested navigation of that river, to its mouth, but also to
an entrepot near thereto, in the dominions of Spain, sub-

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 277

ject to our jurisdiction exclusively, for the convenience
and protection of our commerce. He grounded these
rights upon the broad principle of the law of nature,
that the inhabitants on both sides of a navigable river
are entitled to the common use and enjoyment of it, to
the ocean ; and that the right to use a thing compre
hends a right to all the means necessary to its use. The
peculiar energy and urgency of his official communica
tions are in unison with the high tone of American feel
ing which he carried into every situation.

On the subject of the boundaries between the United
States and Spain, and the incendiary interference of the
latter with the Indians on our territories, the communi
cations of Mr Jefferson gave a tone to the foreign ad
ministration of. the government, distinguished alike for
moderation and firmness. He uniformly pressed on
our minister the importance of assuring the court of
Spain, on every occasion, in respectful yet unequivocal
terms, that the essential principles in dispute would nev
er be relinquished preferring always a peaceful redress
of grievances, yet fearless of war, if driven to that ex
tremity. Such however was the obstinacy of Spain, and
her jealousy of a rising power in the West, which was one
day to obliterate her American possessions, that although
deprecating the possibility of war, she skilfully par
ried all attempts at negotiation, and secretly practised
her wily arts with the Indians. This temporizing and
inhuman policy at length drew forth from Mr Jeffer
son a bold address to the court of Spain itself, declar
ing the ultimate determination of the government, in lan
guage equally resolute and conciliatory.

4 We love and we value peace ; we know its blessings
from experience ; unmeddling with the affairs of other
nations, we had hoped that our distance and our dispo
sitions, would have left us free, in the example and indul
gence of peace with all the world. We had with sin
cere and particular dispositions, courted and cultivated
24*

278

LIFE OF

the friendship of Spain. Cherishing the same senti
ments, we have chosen to ascribe the unfriendly insinu
ations of the Spanish commissioners, in their intercourse
with the government of the United States, to the peculiar
character of the writers, and to remove the cause from
them to their sovereign, in whose justice and love of
peace we have confidence. If we are disappointed in
this appeal, if we are to be forced into a contrary order
of things, our mind is made up, we shall meet it with
firmness. The necessity of our position will supersede
all appeal to calculation now, as it has done heretofore.
We confide in our own strength, without boasting of it :
we respect that of others, without fearing it. If Spain
chooses to consider our self defence against savage butch
ery as a cause of war to her, we must meet her also in
war, with regret, but without fear ; and we shall be hap
pier to the last moment, to repair with her to the tribu
nal of peace and reason.

The controversy with Spain, on these several points,
was continued with unabated ardor, while Mr Jefferson
remained secretary of State. The rights in dispute
were finally secured by treaty, on the principles con
tended for by him, except that the right to an entrepot
at New Orleans was limited to three years. The prin
ciple of free bottoms, free goods, was also recognized ;
and the practice of privateering was humanely restrain
ed. These were favorite ideas with Mr Jefferson. The
treaty with Spain was concluded on the 27th of Octo
ber, 1795.

In the midst of the contest with Spain, the secretary
of State became involved in a diplomatic controversy
with Mr Hammond, minister plenipotentiary of Great
Britain to the United States. This controversy origin
ated in the non-execution of the treaty of peace ; in
fractions of which, in various particulars, had been mu
tually charged, by each upon the other party, ever since
the conclusion of the war. Mr Jefferson directed the
attention of the British minister to the subject, in a point
ed manner. He informed him that the British garrisons

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 279

had not evacuated the western posts, in violation of an
express stipulation to that effect in the seventh article,
that the British officers had exercised jurisdiction over
the country and inhabitants in the vicinity of these posts,
that American citizens had been excluded from the navi
gation of the lakes, and that, contrary to the same arti
cle, a great number of negroes, the property of Ameri
can citizens, had been carried away on the evacuation of
New York.

Mr Hammond replied, by admitting the alleged in
fractions, but justifying them on the ground of retalia
tion, the United States having previously, he declared,
violated their engagements, by obstructing the payment
of debts justly due to British creditors, and by refusing
to make remuneration for repeated confiscations of Bri
tish property, during and since the war.

To this, Mr Jefferson rejoined, on the 29th of May,
92, in a masterly communicatien of more than sixty
pages octavo. He reviewed the whole ground of the
controversy, from beginning to end, sustaining his for
mer positions and overturning those of the British minis
ter, by such arguments as drove his antagonist from the
Afield. He showed that with respect to property confis
cated by the individual States, the treaty merely stipu
lated that Congress should recommend to the legislatures
of the several States to provide for its restitution. That
Congress had done all in their power, and all they were
bound by the treaty to do ; that it was left with the
States to comply or not, as they might think proper,
with the recommendation of Congress, and that this was
so understood by the British negotiators, and by the
British ministry, at the time the treaty was concluded.
He also claimed that the first infractions were on the
part of Great Britain, by retaining the western posts,
and by the deportation of negroes ; and that the delays
and impediments which had taken place in the collection
of "British debts, were justifiable on that account.

280

LIFE OF

Hammond never undertook an answer to this com
munication. After more than a year had elapsed, with
out hearing any thing from him, Mr Jefferson invited
his attention to the subject, and requested an answer.
But Hammond evaded the challenge, alleging as an ex
cuse for his neglect, that he awaited instructions from
his government. In this state the matter rested until it
became merged in disputes of a more serious character,
by the outbreaking of a general war in Europe, which
changed the political relations of both continents.

Against another pretension on the part of Great Bri
tain, and one which ultimately conduced to the second
war with that nation, Mr Jefferson had the honor of
opposing the first formal resistance of our government.
This was the impressment of seamen on board Ameri
can ships, under color of their being British subjects.
This custom was peculiar to England ; she had prac
tised it towards all other nations, from time immemo
rial, but with accumulated rigor towards the United
States since their independence. She claimed the ab
solute right of going on board American ships, with her
press-gangs, and constraining into her service all sea
men whatsoever, who could not produce upon the spot,
written evidences of their citizenship. The consequence
was that American citizens were frequently carried off,
and subjected to multiplied cruelties, not only without
evidence, but even against evidence. In opposition to
this preposterous claim, the secretary of State proclaim
ed the determined voice of the government, and autho
rized a rigorous system of reprisal, unless the practice
should be abandoned. He contended that American
bottoms should be prima facie evidence that all on board
were Americans, which would throw the burden of proof,
where it ought to be, on those who set themselves up
against natural right. Under date of June 11, 1792,
he thus writes to our minister at London :

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 281

1 We entirely reject the mode which was the subject
of a conversation between Mr Morris and him, [British
minister,] which was, that our seamen should always
carry about them certificates of their citizenship. This
is a condition never yet submitted to by any nation, one
with which seamen would never have the precaution to
comply : the casualties of their calling would expose them
to the constant destruction or loss of this paper evidence,
and thus, the British government would be armed with
legal authority to impress the whole of our seamen.
The simplest rule will be, that the vessel being Ameri
can, shall be evidence that the seamen on board her are
such. If they apprehend that our vessels might thus
become asylums for the fugitives of their own nation
from impressment, the number of men to be protected by
a vessel may be limited by her tonnage, and one or two
officers only be permitted to enter the vessel in order to
examine the numbers on board ; but no press-gang
should be allowed ever to go on board an American ves
sel, till after it shall be found that there are more than
their stipulated. number on board, nor till after the mas
ter shall have refused to deliver the supernumeraries (to
be named by himself) to the press-officer who has come
on board for that purpose ; and, even then, the Ameri
can consul should be called in. In order to urge a set
tlement of this point, before a new occasion may arise,
it may not be amiss to draw their attention to the pecu
liar irritation excited on the last occasion, and the diffi
culty of avoiding our making immediate reprisals on
their seamen here.

On the subject of impressment Mr Jefferson s private
opinion was, that American bottoms should be conclusive
evidence that all on board were American citizens, in
asmuch as the right of expatriation was a natural right,
the free enjoyment of which no nation had the authority
to molest, with respect to any other nation, unless by
special and mutual agreement. But the administration
were not prepared, at this time, to carry their resistance
to the princjple, farther than was necessary for the pro-

282 LIFE OF

tection of their own seamen, without affording an
asylum for others.

The Holy Alliance of European despots against the
republic of France, in 1793, placed the United States
in a new position. The situation of a neutral nation is
always delicate arid embarrassing ; but peculiarly so,
when it is connected with the belligerent parties by ex
tensive commercial relations, and when its subjects are
divided by powerful political partialities and antipathies
towards the powers at war. This was precisely the
situation of the United States.

The frenzy of the popular excitement in favor of
France, was greatly increased by the intemperate cha
racter of the minister of the French republic, Mr Genet.
No sooner had this gentleman arrived in the United
States, than, presuming on the state of public feeling,
he began the design of forcing them to become a party
to the war, by an extraordinary course of proceedings.
He landed on the 8th of April, 1793, at Charleston, a
port so remote from his points, both of departure and
destination, as to excite attention ; and instead of pro
ceeding directly to Philadelphia and presenting his cre
dentials to the president, he remained in Charleston five
or six weeks. While there, he was constantly engaged
in authorizing the fitting and arming vessels in that port,
enlisting men, foreigners and citizens, and giving them
commissions to cruise and commit hostilities on the na
tions at war with France. These vessels were taking
and bringing prizes into our ports ; and the consuls of
France, by his direction, were assuming to hold courts
of admiralty on them, to try, condemn, and authorize
their sale as legal prize. All this was done and doing
before Mr Genet had been received and accredited by
the president, without his consent or consultation, in de
fiance of an express proclamation by the government,
and in palpable contravention of the law of nations.
These proceedings immediately called forth from the

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 283

British minister several memorials thereon ; to which
Mr Jefferson replied, on the 15th of May, condemning
in the highest degree, the transactions complained
against, and assuring the British minister that the United
States would take the most effectual measures to pre
vent their repetition. Mr Genet reached Philadelphia
the next day. His progress through the country had
been triumphal ; and he was received at Philadelphia
amidst the plaudits and acclamations of the people.
On his presentation to the president, he assured him
that on account of the remote situation of the United
States and other circumstances, France did not expect
them to become a party in the war, but wished to see
them preserve their prosperity and happiness in peace.
But in a conference with the secretary of State, soon
after his reception, he alluded to his proceedings at
Charleston, and expressed a hope that the president had
not absolutely decided against them. He added, that
he would write the secretary a note, justifying his con
duct under the treaty between the two nations ; but if
the president should finally determine otherwise, he must
submit, as his instructions enjoined him to do what was
agreeable to the Americans.

In pursuance of his intimation, he addressed a letter
to the secretary of State, on the 27th of May, in which
it appeared that he was far from possessing a disposi
tion to acquiesce in the decisions of the government.
This letter laid the foundation of a correspondence,
which is confessedly unparalleled in the annals of di
plomacy. The communications of Mr Jefferson present
a valuable commentary on the legal interpretation of
treaties. They occupy a volume of the American State-
papers ; and a mere outline of them, would exceed the
limits prescribed to the present work.

The communications of Genet, on the other hand, were
a tissue of inflammatory declamation. To the reason
ings of Mr Jefferson on the obligations of the United

284 LIFE OP

States to observe an impartial neutrality towards all
the belligerent parties, he applied the epithet of diplo
matic subtilties. 5 And when he sustained the princi
ples advanced by him, by quotations from Vattel and
other approved jurisconsults, Genet called them * the
aphorisms of Vattel, <fcc. You oppose, said he, to
my complaints, to my just reclamations, upon the foot
ing of right, the private or public opinion of the presi
dent of the United States ; and this a3gis not appearing
to you sufficient, you bring forward aphorisms of Vattel,
to justify or excuse infractions committed on positive
treaties. And he added, do not punish the brave in
dividuals of your nation who arrange themselves under
our banner, knowing perfectly well, that no law of the
United States gives to the government the sole power of
arresting their zeal, by acts of rigor. The Americans
are free : they are not attached to the glebe, like the
slaves of Russia ; they may change their situation when
they please, and by accepting at this moment the suc
cor of their arms in the habit of trampling on tyrants,
we do not commit the plagiat of which you speak.
The true robbery, the true crime would be to enchain
the courage of these good citizens, of these sincere
friends of the best of causes. At other times he would
address himself to the political feelings of Mr Jefferson
himself, whom he had been induced to consider his per
sonal friend, and who, he said, had initiated him into
mysteries which had inflamed his hatred against all
those who aspire to an absolute power.

During the same time also Mr Genet was indus
triously engaged in disseminating seditious addresses
among the people, and attempting, by every means in
his power, to inflame their passions, and induce them
to arise in arms against the enemies of France.

Finally, after a controversy of several months, in the
whole course of which, the mingled effusions of arro
gance and intemperance were opposed to a moderation

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 285

and forbearance which could not be betrayed into a
single undignified expression, the American government
came to the determination of desiring the recall of Mr
Genet. This delicate duty was executed by Mr Jeffer
son, and in a manner which has doubtless united more
opinions in its favor than any other diplomatic per
formance on record. On the 16th of August, 1793, he
addressed a letter to Mr Morris, the minister of the
United States at Paris, containing an epitome of the
correspondence on both sides, assigning the reasons
which rendered the recall of Mr Genet necessary, and
directing the case to be immediately laid before the
French government.

It were vain to attempt a satisfactory analysis of
this letter. To a full and dispassionate review of the
transactions of Mr Genet, and an unanswerable vin
dication of the principles upon which the administra
tion had conducted itself in the controversy, assurances
were added of an unwavering attachment to France,
expressed in such terms as to impress every reader
with their sincerity. The concluding paragraphs are
too remarkable not to require an insertion.

After introducing a series of quotations from Mr
Genet s correspondence, which he deemed too offensive
to be translated into English, or to merit a commen
tary, the author proceeded in the following dignified
strain :

4 We draw a veil over the sensations which these ex
pressions excite. No words can render them ; but they
will not escape the sensibility of a friendly and mag
nanimous nation, who will do us justice. We see in
them neither the portrait of ourselves, nor the pencil of
our friends ; but an attempt to embroil both ; to add
still another nation to the enemies of his country, and
to draw on both a reproach, which it is hoped will never
stain the history of either. The written proofs, of
25

286

LIFE OP

which Mr Genet was himself the bearer, were too un
equivocal to leave a doubt that the French nation are
constant in their friendship to us. The resolves of their
national convention, the letters of their executive coun
cil attest this truth, in terms which render it necessary
to seek in some other hypothesis, the solution of Mr
Genet s machinations against our peace and friendship.
1 Conscious, on our part, of the same friendly and sin
cere dispositions, we can with truth affirm, both for our
nation and government, that we have never omitted a
reasonable occasion of manifesting them. For I will
not consider as of that character, opportunities of sally
ing forth from our ports to way-lay, rob, and murder
defenceless merchants and others, who have done us no
injury, and who were coming to trade with us in the con
fidence of our peace and amity. The violation of all
the laws of order and morality which bind mankind to
gether, would be an unacceptable offering to a just na
tion. Recurring then only to recent things, after so
afflicting a libel, we recollect with satisfaction, that in
the course of two years, by unceasing exertions, we paid
up seven years arrearages and instalments of our debt
to France, which the inefficiency of our first form of
government had suffered to be accumulating: that press
ing on still to the entire fulfilment of our engagements,
we have facilitated to Mr Genet the effect of the instal
ments of the present year, to enable him to send relief
to his fellow citizens in France, threatened with famine :
that in the first moment of the insurrection which threat
ened the colony of St Domingo, we stepped forward to
their relief with arms and money, taking freely on our
selves the risk of an unauthorized aid, when delay would
have been denial : that we have received, according to
our best abilities, the wretched fugitives from the catas
trophe of the principal town of that colony, who, escap
ing from the swords and flames of civil war, threw them
selves on us naked and houseless, without food or friends,
money or other means, their faculties lost and absorbed
in the depth of their distresses : that the exclusive ad
mission to sell here the prizes made by France on her
enemies, in the present war, though unstipulated in our
treaties, and unfounded in her own practice or in that

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 287

of other nations, as we believe ; the spirit manifested by
the late grand jury in their proceedings against those
who had aided the enemies of France with arms and
implements of war ; the expressions of attachment to
his nation, with which Mr Genet was welcomed on his
arrival and journey from South to North, and our long
forbearance under his gross usurpations and outrages of
the laws and authority of our country, do not bespeak
the partialities intimated in his letters. And for these
things he rewards us by endeavors to excite discord and
distrust between our citizens and those whom they have
entrusted with their government, between the different
branches of our government, between our nation and
his. But none of these things, we hope, will be found
in his power. That friendship which dictates to us to
bear with his conduct yet a while, lest the interests of
his nation here should suffer injury, will hasten them to
replace an agent, whose dispositions are such a misrepre
sentation of theirs, and whose continuance here is incon
sistent with order, peace, respect, and that friendly cor
respondence which we hope will ever subsist between the
two nations. His government will see too that the case
is pressing. That it is impossible for two sovereign and
independent authorities to be going on within our terri
tory at the same time without collision. They will fore
see that if Mr Genet perseveres in his proceedings, the
consequences would be so hazardous to us, the example
so humiliating and pernicious, that we may be forced
even to suspend his functions before a successor can ar
rive to continue them. If our citizens have not already
been shedding each other s blood, it is not owing to the
moderation of Mr Genet, but to the forbearance of the
government.

4 Lay the case then immediately before his govern
ment. Accompany it with assurances, which cannot be
stronger than true, that our friendship for the nation is
constant and unabating; that faithful to our treaties, we
have fulfilled them in every point to the best of our un
derstanding ; that if in any thing, however, we have con
strued them amiss, we are ready to enter into candid ex
planations, and to do whatever we can be convinced is
right ; that in opposing the extravagances of an agent,
whose character they seem not sufficiently to have known,

288 LIFE OF

we have been urged by motives of duty to ourselves and
justice to others, which cannot but be approved by those
who are just themselves ; and finally, that after inde
pendence and self-government, there is nothing we more
sincerely wish than perpetual friendship with them.

This appeal to the justice and magnanimity of France,
was successful. Genet was recalled, and his place sup
plied by Mr Fauchet, who arrived in the United States
in February, 1794.

On the last day of December, 1793, Mr Jefferson re
signed the office of secretary of State, and retired from
political life. This was not a sudden resolution on his
part ; nor unexpected to his country. The political dis
agreement between himself and the secretary of the
treasury, added to his general disinclination to office, was
the cause of his retirement. This disagreement origina
ting in a fundamental difference of opinion, and aggra
vated by subsequent collisions in the cabinet, was reflect
ed back upon the people, and aggravated in turn, the
agitations and animosities between the republicans and
federalists, of which they were respectively the leaders.

Having discovered in a letter from the president, while
on a journey to the south, that he intended to resign the
administration at the end of his first term, he decided
on making that the date of his own retirement. This
resolution was formed so early as April, 1791 ; and first
communicated to the president in February, 1792. The
private conversations held between these two great pub
lic servants, at different periods during their official con
nection, attest the sincerity of their attachment to each
other, and the fervor of their devotion to the country.
While both were sighing for retirement, each endeavored
to dissuade the other from it, as an irreparable public
calamity.

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 289

CHAPTER XL

AFTER five and twenty years continual employment in
the public service, with every wish of personal ambition
more than gratified, Mr Jefferson returned with great
satisfaction to that mode of life which had always been
congenial to him, and from which he was resolved never
again to be diverted. In answer to a letter of the secre
tary of State, soon after his resignation, containing an
invitation of the president, pressing his return to the
public councils, he wrote : No circumstances, my dear
sir, will ever more tempt me to engage in any thing pub
lic. I thought myself perfectly fixed in this determina
tion when I left Philadelphia, but every day and hour
since has added to its inflexibility. It is a great pleasure
to me to retain the esteem and approbation of the presi
dent, and this forms the only ground of any reluctance
at being unable to comply with every wish of his. Pray
convey these sentiments and a thousand more to him,
which my situation does not permit me to go into.

In the cultivation of his farm, with which he was at
all times enamored, arid to which he was now intently
devoted, Mr Jefferson was as philosophical and original
as in every other department of business. On and around
the mountain on which Monticello is situated, was an
estate of about 5000 acres owned by him ; of which
eleven hundred and twenty acres only were under culti
vation. A ten years abandonment of his lands to the
ravages of overseers, had brought on them a degree of
deterioration, far beyond what he had expected ; and he
25*

290 LIFE OF

determined upon the following plan for retrieving them
from the wretched condition in which they were found.
He divided all his lands under culture, into four farms,
and every farm into seven fields of forty acres. Each
farm therefore consisted of two hundred and eighty
acres. He established a system of rotation in cropping,
which embraced seven years ; and this was the reason
for the division of each farm into seven fields. In the
first of these years, wheat was cultivated ; in the second,
Indian corn ; in the third, peas or potatoes ; in the fourth,
vetches ; in the fifth, wheat ; and in the sixth and seventh,
clover. Thus each of his fields yielded some produce
every year, and the rotation of culture, while it prepar
ed the soil for the succeeding crop, increased its produce.
Each farm, under the direction of a particular steward
or bailiff, was cultivated by four negroes, four negresses,
four oxen, and four horses. On each field was con
structed a barn sufficiently capacious to hold its produce
in grain and forage. A few extracts from his private
correspondence, at this period, will show how complete
ly his mind was abstracted from the political world, and
absorbed in the occupations and enjoyments of his rural
retreat.

To JAMES MADISON. I long to see you. I am pro
ceeding in my agricultural plans with a slow but sure
step. To get under full way will require four or five
years. But patience and perseverance will accomplish
it. My little essay in red clover, the last year, has had
the most encouraging success. I sowed then about forty
acres. I have sowed this year about one hundred and
twenty, which the rain now falling comes very oppor
tunely on. From one hundred and sixty to two hundred
acres, will be my yearly sowing. The seed-box describ
ed in the agricultural transactions of New-York, reduces
the expense of seeding from six shillings to two shillings
and three pence the acre, and does the business better
than is possible to be done by the human hand.

To W. B. GILES. I sincerely congratulate you on

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 291

the great prosperities of our two first allies, the French
and Dutch. If I could but see them now at peace with
the rest of their continent, I should have little doubt of
dining with Pichegru in London, next autumn ; for I be
lieve I should be tempted to leave my clover for a while,
and go and hail the dawn of liberty and republicanism
in that island. I shall be rendered very happy by the
visit you promise me. The only thing wanting to make
me completely so, is the more frequent society of my
friends. It is the more wanting, as I am become more
firmly fixed to the glebe. If you visit me as a farmer, it
must be as a condisciple ; for I am but a learner, an
eager one indeed, but yet desperate, being too old to learn
a new art. However, I am as much delighted and occu
pied with it, as if I was the greatest adept. I shall talk
with you about it from morning till night, and put you
on very short allowance as to political aliment. Now
and then a pious ejaculation for the French and Dutch
republicans, returning with due dispatch to clover, pota
toes, wheat, &c.

To M. PAGE. It was not in my power to attend at
Fredericksburg according to the kind invitation in your
letter, and in that of Mr Ogilvie. The heat of the
weather, the business of the farm, to which I have made
myself necessary, forbade it ; and to give one round
reason for all, mature sanus, I have laid up my Rosinante
in his stall, before his unfitness for the road shall expose
him faltering to the world. But why did not I answer
you in time ? Because, in truth, I am encouraging my
self to grow lazy, and I was sure you would ascribe the
delay to any thing sooner than a want of affection or re
spect to you, for this was not among the possible causes.
In truth, if any thing could ever induce me to sleep
another night out of my own house, it would have been
your friendly invitation and my solicitude for the subject
of it, the education of our youth. I do most anxiously
wish to see the highest degrees of education given to the
higher degrees of genius, and to all degrees of it, so
much as may enable them to read and understand what
is going on in the world, and to keep their part of it go
ing on right : for nothing can keep it right but their own
vigilant and distrustful superintendence.

292 LIFE OF

With the peaceful operations of agriculture, Mr Jef
ferson combined another gratification to wit, the pur
suit of science. In compliment to his uncommon pas
sion for philosophy, and his exalted attainments in
science, he was about this time appointed president of
the American Philosophical Society, the oldest and
most distinguished institution in the United States. This
honor had been first conferred on Dr Franklin, and
afterwards on Rittenhouse, at whose death Mr Jefferson
was chosen. His sensibility to this mark of distinction
was more profound than he had ever felt on any occa
sion of political preferment. * The suffrage of a body,
said he in reply, which comprehends whatever the
American world has of distinction in philosophy and
science in general, is the most flattering incident of my
life, and that to which I am the most sensible. My
satisfaction would be complete, were it not for the con
sciousness that it is far beyond my titles. I feel no
qualification for this distinguished post, but a sincere
zeal for all the objects of our institution, and an ardent
desire to see knowledge so disseminated through the
mass of mankind, that it may, at length, reach even the
extremes of society, beggars, and kings.

Of this society he was the pride and ornament. He
presided over it for a number of years with great effi
ciency, elevating its character, and extending its opera
tions, by those means which his enlarged acquaintance
with science and the literary world enabled him to com
mand. His constant attendance at its meetings, while
he resided in Philadelphia, gave them an interest which
had not been excited for a number of years. Science,
under his auspices, received a fresh impulse, as will ap
pear by consulting the Transactions of that period, which
were enriched by many valuable contributions from him
self.

But it was impossible for Mr Jefferson utterly to ex
tinguish that inbred republicanism for which he was

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 293

so remarkable, or those anxieties for its preservation
and purity, which weighed on him so heavily at times.
He had left Philadelphia not without some inquietude
for the future destinies of the government, yet with a
confidence so strong as never permitted him to doubt the
final result of the experiment.

Early in the year 1795, the two great parties of the
nation became firmly arrayed against each other, on the
question of providing a successor to General Washing
ton. Mr Adams was taken up by the federalists, and
Mr Jefferson was undividedly designated as the republi
can candidate.

The contest was conducted with great asperity. In
fierceness and turbulence of character, in the temper
and dispositions of the respective parties, and in the
principles which were put in issue, the contest so strong
ly resembled those of which the present generation
have been frequent eye-witnesses and actors, as to ren
der a description unnecessary. The issue is well known.
The struggle of the people against the party in power
is always an unequal one ; and was lost on the present
occasion. The majority, however, was inconsiderable.
On counting the electoral votes in February, 1797, it
appeared there were seventy-one for Mr Adams, and
sixty-eight for Mr Jefferson.

294 LIFE OF

CHAPTER XII.

THE new administration, under John Adams, com
menced on the 4th of March, 1797.

Mr Jefferson arrived at the seat of government on the
2d of March. Though there was no necessity for his
attendance, he had determined to come on, from a prin
ciple of respect to the public and the new president.
He had taken the precaution, however, to manifest his
disapprobation of the forms and ceremonies, establish
ed at the first inauguration, by declining all participa
tion in the homage of the occasion. As soon as he was
certified by the public papers of the event of the elec
tion, he addressed a letter to Mr Tazewell, senator of
Virginia, expressing his particular desire to dispense
with the formality of notification by a special messen
ger. At the first election of president and vice presi
dent, gentlemen of considerable distinction were depu
ted to notify the parties chosen; and it was made an
office of much dignity. But this expensive formality
was as unnecessary as it was repugnant to the genius of
our government ; and he was anxious that the prece
dent should not be drawn into custom. He therefore
authorized Mr Tazewell to request the senate, if not in
compatible with their views of propriety, to discontinue
the practice in relation to himself, and to adopt the
channel of the post, as the least troublesome, the most
rapid, and by the use of duplicates and triplicates, al
ways capable of being rendered the most certain. He

THOMAS JEFFERSON. . 295

addressed another letter at the same time to Mr Madi
son, requesting him to discountenance in his behalf, all
parade of reception, induction, &c.

There was another point, involving an important con
stitutional principle, on which Mr Jefferson improved
the occasion of his election to introduce a salutary re
formation in the practice of the government. During
the previous administration, the vice president was made
a member of the cabinet, and occasionally participated
in the executive consultations, equally with the mem
bers of the cabinet proper. This practice he regarded
as a combination of legislative with executive powers,
which the constitution had wisely separated. He avail
ed himself, therefore, of the first opening from a friend
ly quarter, to announce his determination to consider
the office of vice president as legitimately confined to
legislative functions, and to sustain no part whatever
in the executive consultations. In a letter to Mr Madi
son, dated Monticello, January 22, 1797, he says : * My
letters inform me that Mr Adams speaks of me with
great friendship, and with satisfaction in the prospect of
administering the government in concurrence with me.
I am glad of the first information, because, though I
saw that our ancient friendship was affected by a little
leaven, produced partly by his constitution, partly by
the contrivance of others, yet I never felt a diminution
of confidence in his integrity, and retained a solid af
fection for him. His principles of government I knew
to be changed, but conscientiously changed. As to my
participation in the administration, if by that he meant
the executive cabinet, both duty and inclination will shut
that door to me. As to duty, the] constitution will
know me only as the member of a legislative body ;
and its principle is, that of a separation of legislative,
executive, and judiciary functions, except in cases speci
fied. If this principle be not expressed in direct terms,
yet it is clearly the spirit of the constitution, and it

296 LIFE OF

ought to be so commented and acted on by every friend
to free government.

In the first moments of the enthusiasm of the inaugu
ration, Mr Adams v forgot party sentiments, and indi
cated a disposition to harmonize with the republican
body of his fellow citizens. He called upon Mr Jefferson
on the 3d of March, and expressed great pleasure at find
ing him alone, as he wished a free conversation with
him. He entered immediately on an explanation of the
situation of our affairs with France, and the danger of
a rupture with that nation ; that he was impressed with
the necessity of an immediate mission to the directory ;
that it would have been the first wish of his heart to
have got Mr Jefferson to go there, but that he supposed it
was now out of the question. That he had determined
on sending an embassy, which by its dignity should sa
tisfy France, and by its selection from the three great
divisions of the continent, should satisfy all parts of the
United States ; in short, that he determined to join
Madison and Gerry to Pinckney, and he wished Mr
Jefferson to consult Madison in his behalf. He did so,
but Mr Madison declined, as was expected. After that
he never said a word to Mr Jefferson on the subject, nor
ever consulted him as to any measures of the adminis
tration.

From the warmth with which Mr Jefferson embarked
in opposition to the administration, it might be inferred
that he permitted his political feelings to influence him
in the discharge of his official duties. But this was not
the case. He presided over the senate with dignity,
and, although it was composed for the most part of his
political enemies, with an impartiality, which the rancor
of the times never attempted to impeach. How atten
tive he was to the duties of his station, and how accu
rately he understood the rules of parliamentary order,
is attested by his MANUAL, a work which he at this

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 297

time published, and which has ever since been the guide
of both houses of Congress.

Soon after the election of Mr Adams, the political
contest for his successor was renewed with increased ve
hemence. Mr Jefferson was again, with one accord,
selected as the republican candidate for the presidency,
and Aaron Burr of New York, for the office of Vice
President. With equal unanimity, John Adams, the in
cumbent, and Charles C. Pinkney of South Carolina,
were designated as the candidates of the federal party.

It would be tedious to describe the opposition offered
to Mr Jefferson. The press cast the strongest reflec
tions upon his political principles, and in some instances
the pulpit was made the organ of party. The strife
which then raged was of a nature, the vehemence of
which has seldom been equalled. Mr Jefferson was ac
cused of having betrayed his native State into the hands
of the enemy on two occasions while at the head of the
government, by a cowardly abandonment of Richmond
on the sudden invasion of Arnold, and subsequently, by
an ignominious flight from Monticello on the approach
of Tarlton, with circumstances of such panic and pre
cipitation as to occasion a fall from his horse, and the
dislocation of his shoulder. He was charged with being
the libeller of Washington, and the retainer of mer
cenary libellers to blast the reputation of the father of
his country. He was accused of implacable hostility to
the constitution, of employing foreign scribblers to write
it down ; and of aiming at the annihilation of all law,
order, and government, and the introduction of general
anarchy and licentiousness!. He was characterized as
an atheist, and the patron of French atheists, whom he
encouraged to migrate to this country ; as a demagogue
and disorganize!*, industriously sapping the foundations
of religion and virtue, and paving the way for the es
tablishment of a legalized system of infidelity and liber
tinism. Decency would revolt were we to pursue the
26

298 LIFE OP

catalogue into that region of invective, which was em
ployed to vilify his private character, and which abounded
in fabrications that have been the theme of infinite rid
icule, in prose and verse.

While the madness of party was thus raging, and at
tempting to despoil him of his reputation, Mr Jefferson
remained a passive spectator of the scene. Supported
by a consciousness of his innocence, he surveyed, with
composure, the tempest of detraction which was howl
ing around him. His confidence in the justice of public
opinion was stronger than his sensibility under its tem
porary reproaches, and he quietly submitted to the licen
tiousness of the press, as an alloy which was inseparable
from the boon of its freedom. Besides, he felt an ani
mating pride in being made the subject of the first great
experiment in the world, which was to test the sound-
] ness of his favorite principle, that freedom of discus-
l sion, unaided by power, was sufficient for the protection
and propagation of truth. Although frequently solicited
by his friends, he never would descend to a newspaper
refutation of calumny ; and he never, in any instance,
appealed to the retribution of the laws. * 1 know, he
wrote to a friend in Connecticut, that I might have
filled the courts of the United States with actions for
these slanders, and have ruined, perhaps, many persons
who are not innocent. But this would be no equivalent
for the loss of character. I leave them, therefore, to the
reproof of their own consciences. If these do not con
demn them, there will yet come a day when the false
witness will meet a judge who has not slept over his
slanders. If the Rev. Cotton Mather Smith, of Shena,
believed this as firmly as I do, he would surely never
have affirmed that I had obtained my property by fraud
and robbery ; that in one instance I had defrauded and
robbed a widow and fatherless children of an estate to
\ which I was executor, of ten thousand pounds sterling,
by keeping the property and paying them in money at

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 299

the nominal rate, when it was worth no more than forty
to one ; and that all this could be proved. Every tittle
of this grave denunciation was founded in falsehood.
Mr Jefferson was an executor but in two instances, which
happened about the beginning of the revolution ; and he
never meddled in either executorship. In one of the
cases only were there a widow and children. She was
his sister, and retained and managed the estate exclu
sively in her own hands. In the other case he was co
parcener, and only received on division the equal por
tion allotted him. Again, his property was all patrimo
nial, except about seven or eight hundred pounds worth,
purchased by himself and paid for, not to widows and
orphans, but to the gentleman from whom he purchased.
The charges against Mr Jefferson were indeed so auda
cious, and persevered in with such assurance, as to ex
cite the solicitude of his friends in different sections of
the union ; and they addressed him frequent letters of
inquiry on the subject. These he invariably answered
with frankness and liberality ; but he annexed to every
answer a restraint against its publication. In a letter of
this kind to Samuel Smith of Maryland, he concludes :

These observations will show you how far the impu
tations in the paragraph sent me approach the truth.
Yet they are not intended for a newspaper. At a very
early period of my life, I determined never to put a sen
tence into any newspaper. I have religiously adhered
to the resolution through my life, and have great reason
to be contented with it. Were I to undertake to answer
the calumnies of the newspapers, it would be more than
all my own time and that of twenty aids could effect.
For while I should be answering one, twenty new ones
would be invented. I have thought it better to trust to
the justice of my countrymen, that they would judge me
by what they see of my conduct on the stage where they
have placed me, and what they knew of me before the
epoch, since which a particular party has supposed it
might answer some view of theirs to vilify me in the

300 LIFE OP

public eye. Some, I know, will not reflect how apocry
phal is the testimony of enemies so palpably betraying
the views with which they give it. But this is an injury
to which duty requires every one to submit whom the
public think proper to call into its councils. I thank
you, my dear Sir, for the interest you have for me on
this occasion. Though I have made up my mind not to
suffer calumny to disturb my tranquillity, yet I retain all
my sensibilities for the approbation of the good and just.
That is, indeed, the chief consolation for the hatred of
so many, who, without the least personal knowledge,
and on the evidence of mercenary calumniators alone,
cover me with their implacable hatred. The only return
I will ever make them, will be to do them all the good I
can, in spite of their teeth.

Mr Jefferson was successful over his competitor by
a vote of seventy-three to sixty-five, in the electoral
colleges. The States of New York, Virginia, South
Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee, were
unanimous for him. The New England States, with
Delaware and New Jersey, were unanimous for Mr
Adams. Pennsylvania and North Carolina, acting by
districts, gave a majority of votes to Mr Jefferson ; and
Maryland was equally divided between the two candi
dates.

But owing to a defect in the constitution, or an inat
tention to its provisions, an unexpected contingency
arose, which threatened to reverse the will of the nation,
and to place in the executive chair a man who, it was
notorious, had not received a solitary vote for that sta
tion. Mr Jefferson was elected president, and Aaron
Burr vice president, by an equal number of votes ; and
as the constitution required no specification of the office
for which each respectively was designed, but simply
confined the choice to the person having the highest
number of votes, the consequence was that neither had
the majority required by law. In this dilemma, the
election devolved on the house of representatives, and

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 301

produced storms of an unprecedented character. The
federalists seized on the occasion, to favor their own pecu
liar political principles. They held a caucus, and resolved
on the alternative, either to elect Burr in the room of
Jefferson, or, by preventing a choice altogether, to
create an interregnum. In the latter event, they agreed
to pass an act of Congress, devolving the government
on a president, pro tern, of the senate, who would per
haps have been a person of their choice.

On the llth of February, the house proceeded in the
manner prescribed by the constitution to elect a presi
dent of the United States. The representatives were
required to vote by States, instead of by persons. On
opening the ballots it appeared that there were eight
States for Mr Jefferson, six for colonel Burr, and two
divided ; consequently there was no choice. The pro
cess was repeated, and the same result was indicated,
through FIVE successive days and nights, and THIRTY-
FIVE ballotings.

During this long suspense, the decision depended on
a single vote ! Either one of the federalists from the
divided States, Vermont and Maryland, coming over to
the republican side, would have made a ninth State,
and decided the election in favor of Mr Jefferson. But
the opposition appeared invincible in the resolution to
have a president of their own choice.

Mr N. a representative from Maryland, had been for
some weeks confined to his bed, and was so ill that his
life was considered in danger. Ill as he was, he insisted
on being carried to the hall of representatives, in order
to give his vote. The physicians forbade such a pro
ceeding ; he insisted, and they appealed to his wife,
telling her that such a removal, and the consequent ex
citement, might prove fatal to his life. "Be it so, then,"
said she, " if my husband must die, let it be at the post
of duty ; no weakness of mine shall oppose his noble
resolution." How little did these physicians expect,
26*

302

LIFE OF

when they appealed to the influence of one of the fond
est and most devoted of wives, this courage. Of course
they withdrew their opposition ; the patient was car
ried, in a litter, to the capitol, where a bed was pre
pared for him in an ante-room adjoining the senate
chamber, followed by his wife, where, during the four
or five days and nights of balloting, she remained by
his side ; supporting the strength of the feeble invalid,
who with difficulty traced the name of Jefferson each
time the ballot box was handed to him. Such was the
spirit of that day the spirit of that party !

Finally, on the thirty-sixth ballot the opposition gave
way, apparently from exhaustion. Mr Morris of Ver
mont withdrew, which enabled his only colleague, Lyon,
to give the vote of that State to Mr Jefferson. The four
federalists from Maryland, who had hitherto supported
Burr, voted blanks, which made the positive ticket of
their colleagues the vote of that State. South Carolina
and Delaware, both represented by federalists voted
blanks. So there were on the last ballot, ten States for
Mr Jefferson, four for colonel Burr, and two blanks.*
The result, on being proclaimed, was greeted with ap
plause from the galleries, which were immediately or
dered by the speaker to be cleared. Mr Jefferson did
not receive a federal, nor colonel Burr a democratic
vote. The latter became, of course, vice president ; but
his apostacy separated him irretrievably from the con
fidence of the republicans, while it demonstrated his
fitness for those treasonable purposes of ambition which
he subsequently manifested.

* On the last ballot, Vermont, New York, New Jersey, Pennsyl
vania, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky and
Tennessee, voted for Mr Jefferson. New Hampshire, Massachu
setts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, for colonel Burr. Delaware
and South Carolina, voted blanks.

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 303

CHAPTER XIII.

ON the fourth of March, 1801, Mr Jefferson was in
ducted into office. The crowd of strangers who had
thronged the city during the previous period of agitation,
had disappeared, on the understanding that it was the
pleasure of the president to be made the subject of no
homage or ceremony. The city of Washington had been
occupied, as the seat of government, but a few months
only ; the number of its inhabitants, at this time, did not
exceed that of a small village ; the individuals composing
the late administration had taken their departure with
the ex-president, early on the fourth of March ; and
now, divested of half its migratory population, the infant
metropolis presented a solitary appearance. The sim
plicity of the scene, and of the ceremony of inaugura
tion, is described by a Washington reminiscent : The
sun shone bright on that morning. The senate was con
vened. Those members of the republican party that re
mained at the seat of government, the judges of the su
preme court, some citizens, and persons from the neigh
boring country, and about a dozen ladies, made up the as
sembly in the senate chamber, who were collected to wit
ness the ceremony of the president s inauguration. Mr
Jefferson had not yet arrived. He was seen walking
from his lodgings, which were not far distant, attended
by five or six gentlemen, who were his fellow lodgers.
Soon afterwards he entered, accompanied by a commit
tee of the senate, and bowing to the senate, who arose
to receive him, he approached a table on which the bible

304 LIFE OF

lay,and took the oath which was administered to him by the
chief justice. He was then conducted, by the president
of the senate, to his chair, which stood on a platform
raised some steps above the floor ; after the pause of a
moment or two he arose and delivered that beautiful in
augural address which has since become so popular and
celebrated, with a clear, distinct voice, in a firm and
modest manner. On leaving the chair he was surround
ed by friends who pressed forward with cordial and eager
congratulations. The new president walked home with
two or three of the gentlemen who lodged in the same
house. At dinner he took his accustomed place at the
bottom of the table, his new station not eliciting from his
democratic friends any new attention or courtesy. A
gentleman from Baltimore, an invited guest, who acci
dentally sat next to him, asked permission to wish him
joy, lt I would advise you," answered Mr Jefferson, smil
ing, " to follow my example on nuptial occasions, when
I always tell the bridegroom I will wait till the end of
the year before offering my congratulations." And this
was the only and solitary instance of any notice taken of
the event of the morning.

In the short compass in which the inaugural address
of Mr Jefferson is compressed, the essential principles
of a free government are stated, with the measures best
calculated for their attainment and security, and an am
ple refutation of adverse principles.

Nor was it intended as an ostentatious display of his
political sentiments. The principles advanced in it were
subsequently reduced to practice.

James Madison was appointed secretary of State ; Al
bert Gallatin, secretary of the Treasury ; General Dear
born, secretary of War; Robert Smith, secretary of the
Navy ; and Levi Lincoln, attorney general. Agreeably
to the example set by himself, the vice president was not
invited to take any part in the executive consultations.
He addressed a circular to the heads of departments es-

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 305

tablishing the mode and degree of communication be
tween them and the president. All letters of business
addressed to himself, were referred by him to the proper
department to be acted upon. Those addressed to the
secretaries, with those referred to them, were all com
municated to the president, whether an answer was re
quired or not ; in the latter case simply for his informa
tion. If an answer was requisite, the secretary of the
department communicated the letter and his proposed
answer. If approved, they were simply sent back after
perusal; if not, they were returned with an informal
note suggesting an alteration or query. If any doubt of
importance arose, he reserved it for conference.

At the threshold of his administration, Mr Jefferson
was met by difficulties which called into requisition all
the firmness of his character. He found the principal
offices of the government, and most of the subordinate
ones, in the hands of his political opponents. This state
of things required prompter correctives than the tardy
effects of death and resignation. On him, therefore, for
the first time, devolved the disagreeable enterprize of ef
fecting this change. The general principles of action
which he sketched for his guide on this occasion, were
the following: 1st, All appointments to civil office, du
ring pleasure, made after the event of the election was
certainly known to Mr Adams, were considered as nulli
ties. He did not view the persons appointed as even
candidates for the office, but replaced others without no
ticing or notifying them. 2d, Officers who had been
guilty of official mal-conduct were proper subjects of re
moval. 3d, Good men, to whom there was no objection
but a difference of political principle, practised n so
far only as the right of a private citizen would justify,
were not proper subjects of removal, except in the case
of attorneys and marshals. The courts being so decid
edly federal, it was thought that those offices, being the
doors of entrance, should be exercised by republican cit
izens, as a shield to the republican majority of the na-

306 LIFE OF

tion. 4th, Incumbents who had prostituted their offices
to the oppression of their fellow citizens, ought, in justice
to those citizens, to be removed, and as examples to de
ter others from like abuses.

To these means of introducing the intended change,
was added one other in the course of his administration
to wit, removal for electioneering activity, or open and
industrious opposition to the principles of the govern
ment. Every officer of the government, said he, may
vote at elections according to his own conscience ; but
we should betray the cause committed to our care, were
we to permit the influence of official patronage to be
used to overthrow that cause. In all new appointments,
the president confined his choice to republicans, or re
publican federalists.

The change in the public offices was the first measure
of importance which gave a character of originality to
the administration. Various abuses existed, dependent
on executive indulgence, which soon called into action
the reforming hand of the president. In a letter of the
president to Nathaniel Macon, member of Congress from
North Carolina, in May, 1801, it is curious to notice
the following laconic statement of the progress and in
tended course of reform :

Levees are done away.

4 The first communication to the next Congress will
be, like [all subsequent ones, by message, to which no
answer will be expected.

* The diplomatic establishment in Europe will be re
duced to three ministers.

The compensations to collectors depend on you, and
not on me.

1 The army is undergoing a chaste reformation.

1 The navy will be reduced to the legal establishment
by the last of this month.

* Agencies in every department will be revised.

We shall push you to the uttermost in economizing.
A very early recommendation had been given to the

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 307

Post Master General to employ no printer, foreigner, or
revolutionary tory, in any of his offices. This depart
ment is still untouched.

8 The arrival of Mr Gallatin, yesterday, completed the
organization of our administration.

During the short interval of time between his inaugu
ration and the meeting of the first Congress, the atten
tion of the president was occupied in maturing his plans
for republicanizing the government ; and in carrying
them into execution, in all cases where he possessed the
power independently of the legislature. The courtly
custom of levees, with the train of attendant forms and
ceremonies, had its origin with the government. Gen
eral Washington resisted the importunities to introduce
them, for three weeks after his induction into office. At
last he yielded, and Colonel Humphreys, a gentleman
of great parade, was charged with the arrangement of
ceremonies on the first occasion. Accordingly an ante
chamber and presence-room were provided ; and when
the company who were to pay their court, had assem
bled, the president advanced, preceded by Humphreys.
After passing through the ante-chamber, the door of the
inner room was thrown open, and Humphreys entered
first, calling out with a loud voice, * The president of
the United States. The president was so much discon
certed, that he never recovered from it during the whole
time of the levee. After the company had retired, he
said to Humphreys, Well, you have taken me in once,
but by you shall never take me in a second time. He
never allowed the same form to be repeated, but had the
company introduced as they entered the room, where he
stood to receive them. The levees were continued un
der Mr Adams. Repeated at short intervals, and ac
companied, as they were, by a general course of enter
tainment, they were unnecessarily expensive and ob
structive of business. Mr Jefferson discontinued them.
He had but two public days for the reception of compa-

308 LIFE OP

ny the fourth of July and first of January. On these
occasions, the doors of his house were thrown open, and
the most liberal hospitality provided for the entertain
ment of visitors of every grade without distinction.

So much for the demolition of forms. With these a
system of substantial reformation was vigorously prose
cuted by the president. The introduction of economy
in the public expenditures was the cardinal principle of
this system. To diminish the number and weight of
public burthens, and establish a frugal system of gov
ernment, which should not take from the mouth of labor
the bread it had earned. To this end, the army and
navy were reduced into republican peace establishments ;
or rather to the ultimate point of reduction, confided to
executive discretion. Farther than this, he could not
go without the concurrence of the legislature. The
amount of force, including regulars and militia, which
the several acts of the preceding administration had au
thorized the president to raise, was considerably over
100,000 men. Mr Jefferson reduced the army to four
regiments of infantry, two regiments of artillerists and
engineers, and two troops of light dragoons. The next
year, by the consent of the legislature, he reduced it to
two regiments of infantry, one regiment of artillerists,
and a corps of engineers, or to about three thousand men.

He visited in person each of the departments, and
obtained a catalogue of the officers employed in each,
with a statement of their wages and amount of duties.
Those under his own immediate charge, were subjected
to the same scrutiny. Thence he extended his enquiries
over the whole territory of the republic, and compre
hended in the revision all those, who under any species
of public employment, drew money from the treasury.
This done, he immediately commenced the reduction of
all such offices as he deemed unnecessary, whose tenure
depended on executive discretion. The inspectors of
the internal revenue were discontinued in a mass. They

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 309

comprised a large body of treasury men, dispersed
over the country. Various other agencies, created by
executive authority, on salaries fixed by the same au
thority, were deemed superfluous. These were all sup
pressed. The diplomatic establishment was reduced to
three ministers, all that the public interests required
namely, to England, France, and Spain. He called in
foreign ministers who had been absent eleven, and even
seventeen years ; and established the rule which he had
formerly recommended to General Washington, by whom
it was approved that no person should be continued
on foreign mission beyond a term of six, seven or eight
years. But the great mass of the public offices, being
established by law, required the concurrence of the leg
islature to discontinue them.

The President formed the design of introducing some
wholesome improvements in the established code of inter
national intercourse, by engaging in concurrence and
peaceable co-operation, a coalition of the most liberal
powers of Europe. These improvements respected the
rights of neutral nations, and were original conceptions
with himself and Dr Franklin. He desired to see the
established law of nations abolished, which authorized
the taking the goods of an enemy from the ship of a
friend ; and to have substituted in its place, by special
compacts, the more rational and convenient rule, that
free ships should make free goods. The vexatious ef
fects of the former principle upon neutral nations peace
ably pursuing their commerce, and its tendency to em
broil them with the powers involved in war, were suffi
cient reasons for its universal abandonment ; while the
operation of the latter principle, leaving the nations at
peace to enjoy the common rights of the ocean unmo
lested, was more favorable to the interests of commerce,
and lessened the occasions and the vexations of war. Be
sides, the principle of free bottoms," free goods, he con
tended, was the genuine dictate of national morality.
27

310 LIFE OF

and the converse, which had unfortunately obtained, a
corruption originally introduced by accident between
States* then predominating upon the ocean, and after
wards adopted ft*om the mere force of example, by oth-
: er nations, as they successively appeared upon the the
atre of general cemmerce.

The president desired to see this improvement so
far carried out as to abolish the pernicious distinction of
contraband of war, in the articles of neutral commerce.
He regarded the practice of entering the ship of a friend
to search and seize what was called contraband of war,
as a violation of natural right, and extremely liable to
abuse.

War between two nations, says he, * cannot di
minish the rights of the rest of the world remaining at
peace. The doctrine that the rights of nations remain
ing quietly in the exercise of moral and social duties,
are to give way to the convenience of those who prefer
plundering and murdering one another, is a monstrous
doctrine ; and ought to yield to the mtfre rational law,
that * the wrong which two nations endeavor to inflict
on each other, must not infringe on the rights or con
veniences of those remaining at peace." And what is
contraband, by the law of nature ? Either every thing
which may aid or comfort an enemy, or nothing. Either
all commerce which would accommodate him is unlaw
ful, or none is. The difference between articles of one
or another description, is a difference in degree only.
No line between them can be drawn. Either all inter
course must cease between neutrals and belligerents, or
all be permitted. Can the world hesitate to say which
shall be the rule ? Shall two nations turning tigers,
break up in one instant the peaceable relations of the
whole world ? Reason and nature clearly pronounce
that the neutral is to go on in the enjoyment of all its
rights, that its commerce remains free, not subject to the
jurisdiction of another, nor consequently its vessels to
search, or to enquiries whether their contents are the

* Venice and Genoa.

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 311

property of an enemy, or are of those articles which have
been called contraband of war.

These opinions and arguments he communicated in
the form of instructions, to Robert R. Livingston, nom
inated as minister plenipotentiary to France the day af
ter his inauguration. They were communicated unoffi
cially, however, and with the express reservation, that
they were not to be acted upon until the war in Europe,
which threatened to embroil us with the principal bellige
rents, should be brought to a termination. The same
principles had been repeatedly sanctioned by the govern
ment, and he entertained little doubt of the concurrence
of his constitutional advisers. They formed a part of
those instructions of Congress, drafted by himself in
1784, to the first American ministers appointed to treat
with the nations of Europe ; and which were acceded to
by Prussia and Portugal. In the renewal of the treaty
with Prussia, they had been avoided, at the instance of
our then administration, lest it. should seem to commit us
against England on a question then threatening decision
by the sword ; and in the late treaty with the last named
power, they had been abandoned by our envoy, which
constituted a principal ground of opposition to that me
morable negotiation.

Scarcely had the president entered upon the duties of
his office, when our commerce in the Mediterranean was
interrupted by the pirates. Tripoli, the least considera
ble of the Barbary powers, came forward with demands
unfounded either in right or compact, and avowed the
determination to extort them at the point of the sword,
on our failure to comply peaceably before a given day.
The president with becoming energy, immediately put
in operation such measures of resistance as the urgency
of the case demanded, without waiting the advice of Con
gress. The style of the challenge admitted but one
answer. He sent a squadron of frigate^ into the Medi
terranean, with assurances to the Bey of Tripoli of our

312

LIFE OF

jsincere desire to remain in peace ; but with orders to pro
tect our commerce, at all hazards, against the threaten-

jed attack. The Bey had already declared war in form.
His cruisers were out ; two had arrived at Gibraltar.
Our commerce in the Mediterranean was blockaded ;
and that of the Atlantic in peril. The arrival of the
American squadron dispelled the danger. One of the
Tripolitan cruisers having fallen in with and engaged a
small schooner of ours, which had gone out as a tender
to the larger vessels, was captured with a heavy slaugh
ter of her men, and without the loss of a single one on
our part. This severe chastisement, with the extraor
dinary skill and bravery displayed by the Americans,
quieted the pretensions of the Bey, and operated as a
caution in future to that desperate community of free
booters.

On the 8th of December, 1801, Mr Jefferson made his
first annual communication to Congress, by message. It
had been the uniform practice with his predecessors to
make their first communications on the opening of Con
gress, by personal address, to which a formal answer
was immediately returned by each house separately.
The president always used to go in state, as it was called,
to deliver his speech. He moved to the capitol, preced
ed by the marshal and constables of the district, with
their white staffs, and accompanied by the -heads of de
partments, the members of Congress, and a numerous
procession of citizens. On these occasions he always
wore his sword. A desire to impart a more popular
character to the government by divesting it of a ceremo
nial which partook in some degree of the character of a
royal pageant, a regard to the convenience of the legis
lature, the economy of their time, and relief from the
embarrassments of immediate answers, induced Mr Jef
ferson to adopt the mode of communication by message,
to which no answer was returned. And his example
has been followed by all succeeding presidents.

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 313

The president announced in his message that the ces
sation of hostilities in Europe had produced a consequent
cessation of those irregularities which had afflicted the
commerce of neutral nations ; and restored the ordinary
communications of peace and friendship between the
principal powers of the earth. That our intercourse
with the Indians on our frontiers, was marked by a spirit
of mutual conciliation and forbearance, highly advanta
geous to both parties. That our relations with the Bar-
bary States were in a less satisfactory condition, and
such as to inspire the belief that measures of offence
ought to be authorized, sufficient to place our force on
an equal footing with that of its adversaries. That the
increase of population within the last ten years, as indi
cated by the late census, proceeded in such an unexam
pled ratio as promised a duplication every twenty-two
years. That this circumstance, combined with others,
had produced an augmentation of revenue which pro
ceeded in a ratio far beyond that of population, and au
thorized a reduction of such of its branches as were par
ticularly odious and oppressive.

Accordingly he recommended the abolition of all the
internal taxes, comprehending excises, stamps, auctions,
licences carriages, and refined sugars ; to which he add
ed the postage of newspapers to facilitate the progress
of information. The remaining sources of revenue, aid
ed by the extensive system of economy which he propos
ed to introduce, would be sufficient, he contended, to
provide for the support of government, to pay the inter
est of the public debt, and to discharge the principal in
a shorter period than the laws or the general expecta
tion had contemplated.

As supplemental, however, to the proposition for dis
continuing the internal taxes, he recommended a dimi
nution of the public disbursements, by the abolition of
all superfluous drafts upon the treasury. He informed
the legislature of the progress he had already made in
27*

314 LIFE OF

this department of public duty, by the suppression of all
unnecessary offices, agencies and missions, which depend
ed on executive authority ; and recommended to their
consideration a careful revision of the remainder. Con
sidering, says he, the general tendency to multiply of
fices and dependencies, and to increase expense to the
ultimate term of burthen which the citizen can bear, it
behooves us to avail ourselves of every occasion which
presents itself, for taking off the surcharge ; that it never
may be seen how that, after leaving to labor the smallest
portion of its earnings on which it can subsist, govern
ment shall itself consume the residue of what it was in
stituted to guard/

In order to multiply barriers against the dissipation of
the public money, he recommended Congress to establish
the practice of specific appropriations, in all cases sus
ceptible of definition ; to reduce the undefined field of
contingencies ; and to bring back to a single department
for examination and approval, all accountabilities for re
ceipts and expenditures.

He directed the attention of Congress to the army,
and advised the reduction of the existing establishment
to the number of garrisons actually necessary, and the
number of men requisite for each garrison. A standing
army in time of peace was both unnecessary and dan
gerous. The militia was the main pillar of defence to
the country, and the only force which could be ready at
every point to repel invasion, until regulars could be pro
vided to relieve them. This consideration rendered im
portant a careful review, at every session, of the existing
organization of the militia, and the amendment of such
defects as from tirae to time might show themselves in
the system, until it should be made sufficiently perfect.
4 Nor should we now, said he, or at any time separate,
until we can say we have done every thing for the militia
which we could do were an enemy at our door.

With respect to the navy, although a difference of opin-

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 315

ion might exist as to the extent to which it should be car
ried, yet all would agree that a small force was continu
ally wanted for actual service in the Mediterranean. All
naval preparations beyond this, the president thought,
should be confined to the provision of such articles as
might be kept without waste or consumption, and be in
readiness for any exigence which might occur.

The president was of opinion, that agriculture, man
ufactures, commerce and navigation, were most disposed
to thrive when left most free to individual enterprise.
Protection from casual embarrassments, however, might
sometimes be seasonably interposed ; and was clearly
within the constitutional limits of Congress.

He submitted to the serious consideration of the legis
lature the judiciary system of the United States, and sug
gested the expediency of rescinding that branch of it,
recently erected, should it appear on examination to be
superfluous, of which he entertained no doubt. While
on the subject of the judiciary, he commended to their
protection the inestimable institution of juries, urging
the propriety of their extension to all cases involving the
security of our persons or property, and the necessity of
their impartial selection.

The president warmly recommended a revisal of the
laws on the subject of naturalization, and an abbrevia
tion of the period prescribed for acquiring citizenship.
The existing regulation, requiring a residence of four
teen years, was a denial of citizenship to a great propor
tion of those who asked it, obstructing the prosperous
growth of the country, and incompatible with the hu
mane spirit of our laws.

After commending to them prudence and temperance
in discussion, which were so conducive to harmony and
rational deliberation within their own walls, and to that
consolidation of sentiment among their constituents which
was so happily increasing, the president concluded as
follows : That all should be satisfied with any one or-

316 LIFE OP

der of things, is not to be expected ; but I indulge the
pleasing persuasion that the great body of our citizens
will cordially concur in honest and disinterested efforts,
which have for their object to preserve the general and
state governments in their constitutional form and equi
librium, to maintain peace abroad, and order and obedi
ence to the laws at home ; to establish principles and
practices of administration favorable to the security of
liberty and property, and to reduce expenses to what is
necessary for the useful purposes of government.

The first message of the first democratic president of
,A/the United States, was anticipated with a fever of popu-
; lar impatience. On its appearance, sensations diametri-
"cally opposite were excited in the two great divisions of
the political public. The fundamental features of his
policy, as publicly delineated by the president, were too
unequivocal and strongly marked not to realize the ex
pectations of his supporters, and the necessary appre
hensions of his adversaries. His propositions for lessen
ing the expenditures of the previous administrations, by
the abolition of sinecures, and the establishment of a
rigid accountability with the remaining offices of the
government ; for cutting down the army, and relying for
ordinary protectio-n on the unpensioned resource of an
omnipresent militia ; for reducing the navy to the actual
force required for covering our commerce from the rav
ages of the common enemies of Christendom ; for the
gradual and systematic extinguishment of the public
debt, in derision of the monarchical maxim that e a na
tional debt is a national blessing ; for circumscribing
discretionary powers over money, by establishing the
rule of specific appropriations ; for restoring the hospi
table policy of the government towards aliens, and fugi
tives from foreign oppression ; for multiplying barriers
around the sovereignty of the States and the liberties of
the people, against the encroachments of the federal au
thorities ; by crippling the despotism of the judiciary,

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 317

and lopping from it a supernumerary member engrafted
by his predecessors for political purposes ; all tbese
propositions were seized with avidity by his opponents,
and made one by one, a topic of censure or of raillery.
On the other hand, innumerable addresses of thanks by
republican assemblies, and by individual champions of
the republican party, were communicated to him from
every section of the union. To these he returned pub
lic or private answers, according to the nature of the
address.

But of all the measures of reform recommended in the
president s message, none was so extensive, as the prop
osition to suppress all the internal taxes. This was in
deed a solid inculcation of the principles of republicanism.
In proposing to disband all these at a stroke, the presi
dent meditated the disarming the government of an im
mense resource of executive patronage and preponder
ance, besides relieving the people of a surcharge of taxa
tion. The disinterestedness of the transaction was only
equalled by its boldness, at which the republicans them
selves were considerably alarmed. In a letter to one of
them, dated December 19, 1801, the president wrote :

You will perhaps have been alarmed, as some have
been, at the proposition to abolish the whole of the internal
taxes. But it is perfectly safe. They are under a million
of dollars, and we can economize the government two or
three millions a year. The impost alone gives us ten or
eleven millions annually, increasing at a compound ra
tio of six and two thirds per cent, per annum, and con
sequently doubling in ten years. But leaving that in
crease for contingencies, the present amount will support
the government, pay the interest of the public debt, and
discharge the principal in fifteen years. If the increase
proceeds, and no contingencies demand it, it will pay off
the principal in a shorter time. Exactly one half of the
public debt, to wit, thirty-seven millions of dollars, is
owned in the United States. That capital then will be
set afloat, to be employed in rescuing our commerce

318 LIFE OF

from the hands of foreigners, or in agriculture, canals,
bridges, or other useful enterprises. By suppressing at
once the whole internal taxes, we abolish three-fourths
of the offices now existing, and spread over the land.
Seeing the interest you take in the public affairs, I have in
dulged myself in observations flowing from a sincere and
ardent desire of seeing our affairs put into an honest and
advantageous train.

The first Congress which assembled after Mr Jeffer
son came into power, contained an ascendency of repub
licanism in both houses ; with just enough of opposition
to hoop the majority indissolubly together, and induce
the legislature to move in strong co-operation with the
executive. They erected into laws all the^fundamental
changes recommended by the president, and thereby
enabled him to carry through a system of administration
which substantially revolutionized the governme nt.

To other specific improvements might be added the
general simplification of the system of finance, in which
he was powerfully aided by Gallatin ; and the establish
ment of the permanent rule of definite appropriations of
money for all objects susceptible of definition, so that
every person in the United States might know for what
purpose, and to what amount, every fraction of the pub
lic expenditure was applied. His watchfulness over this
department of administration, the operations of which
are so intimately interwoven with all human concerns,
is forcibly illustrated by the following letter to the secre
tary of the treasury.

4 1 have read and considered your report on the oper
ations of the sinking fund, and entirely approve of it, as
the best plan on which we can set out. I think it an
object of great importance, to be kept in view and to be
undertaken at a fit season, to simplify our system of
finance, and bring it within the comprehension of every
member of Congress.

I like your idea of kneading all the little scraps and
fragments into one batch, and adding to it a comple-

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 319

mentary sum, which, while it forms it into a single mass
from which every thing is to be paid, will enable us,
should a breach of appropriation ever be charged on us,
to prove that the sum appropriated, and more, has been
applied to its specific object.

But there is a point beyond this, on which I should
wish to keep my eye, and to which I should aim to ap
proach by every tack which previous arrangements force
on us. That is, to form into one consolidated mass all
the moneys received into the treasury, and to marshal
the several expenditures, giving them a preference of
payment according to the order in which they shall be
arranged. As for example. 1. The interest of the pub
lic debt. 2. Such portions of principal as are exigible.
3. The expenses of government. 4. Such other portions
of principal as, though not exigible, we are still free to
pay when we please. The last object might be made to
take up the residuum of money remaining in the treasury
at the end of every year, after the three first objects were
complied with, and would be the barometer whereby to
test the economy of the administration. It would fur
nish a simple measure by which every one could mete
their merit, and by which every one could decide when
taxes were deficient or superabundant. If to this can
be added a simplification of the form of accounts in the
treasury department, and in the organization of its offi
cers, so as to bring every thing to a single centre, we
might hope to see the finances of the Union as clear and
intelligible as a merchant s books, so that every member
of Congress, and every man of any mind in the union,
should be able to comprehend them, to investigate abu
ses, and consequently to control them.

I have suggested only a single alteration in the re
port, which is merely verbal, and of no consequence.
We shall now get rid of the commissioner of the internal
revenue, and superintendent of stamps. It remains to
amalgamate the comptroller and auditor into one, and re
duce the register to a clerk of accounts ; and then the
organization will consist, as it should at first, of a keep
er of money, a keeper of accounts, and the head of the
department. I have hazarded these hasty and crude
ideas, which occurred on contemplating your report.

320 LIFE OF

They may be the subject of future conversation and cor
rection.

The purchase of Louisiana from France, had long
been a favorite object with Mr Jefferson, as essential to
removing from the United States a continual and eternal
collision and cause of war with the European possessor,
besides securing to us the exclusive navigation of the
western waters, and an immeasurable region of fertile
country. The territory of Louisiana was originally col
onized by France. In 1762, the greater part of it, in
cluding the island of New Orleans, was ceded to Spain ;
and by the general treaty of peace which followed the
Canadian war in 63, the whole territory of France and
Spain, eastward of the Mississippi to the Ibberville,
thence through the middle of that river to the sea, was
ceded to Great Britain. Under the former possession
by France, the territory embraced what is denominated
West Florida. Spain during the war of the revolution
conquered this, with East Florida, from Great Britain,
and acquired the right to them both by the treaty of 83.
While in the hands of Spain, the United States acquired
the right to a free navigation of the Mississippi, and to
an entrepot at New-Orleans. About this time, to wit,
in 1800, Spain restored to France the whole of Louisia
na according to its ancient and proper limits. This
transfer was attended with a suspension of our right of
deposit at New-Orleans, and opened to us in the opin
ion of the president, the prospect of a complete reversal
of all our friendly relations with France. In view of the
threatening crisis, he immediately joined Mr Monroe as
envoy extraordinary, to R. R. Livingston, minister res
ident at the French court, with instructions joint and
several to. negotiate the purchase of Louisiana from
France. In the letter to Mr Monroe conveying the no-
tice of his appointment, the president says : All eyes,
all hopes are now fixed on you ; and were you to decline,

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 321

the chagrin would be universal, and would shake under
your feet the high ground on which you stand with the
public. For on the event of this mission may depend
the future destinies of this republic. If we cannot, by
a purchase of the country, insure to ourselves a course
of perpetual peace and friendship with all nations, then,
as war cannot be distant, it behooves us immediately to
be preparing for that course, without, however, hasten
ing it ; and it may be necessary, on your failure on the
continent, to cross the channel. We shall get entangled
in European politics, and figuring more, be much less
happy and prosperous. This can only be prevented by
a successful issue to your present mission I am sensi
ble after the measures you have taken for getting into a
different line of business, that it will be a great sacrifice
on your part, and presents from the season and other
circumstances, serious difficulties. But some men are
born for the public. Nature, by fitting them for the
service of the human race on a broad scale, has stamp
ed them with the evidences of her destination and their
duty.

The personal agency of Mr Jefferson in this achieve
ment was of the most laborious character. In addition
to his official instructions communicated through the
secretary of State, his private letters to our ministers,
and to influential characters in France, on whose fidelity
and friendship he relied, are ample testimonials of his
ardor and indefatigableness in the prosecution of the en-
terprize. Among these, is the following, addressed to Mr
Livingston.

* The cession of Louisiana and the Floridas by Spain
to France, works most sorely on the United States. Or.
this subject the secretary of State has written to you ful
ly, yet I cannot forbear recurring to it personally, so
deep is the impression it makes on my mind. It com
pletely reverses all the political relations of the United
28

322 LIFE OF

States, and will form anew epoch in our political course.
Of all nations of any consideration, France is the one,
which, hitherto, has offered the fewest points on which
we could have any conflict of right, and the most points
of a communion of interests. From these causes we
have ever looked to her as our natural friend^ as one
with which we never could have an occasion of differ
ence. Her growth, therefore, we viewed as our own,
her misfortunes ours. There is on the globe one single
spot, the possessor of which is our natural and habitual
enemy. It is New-Orleans, through which the produce
of three-eighths of our territory must pass to market,
and from its fertility it will ere long yield more than
half of our whole produce, and contain more than
half of our inhabitants. France, placing herself in that
door, assumes to us the attitude of defiance. Spain
might have retained it quietly for years. Her pacific
dispositions, her feeble state, would induce her to in
crease our facilities there, so that her possession of the
place would be hardly felt by us, and it would not, per
haps, be very long before some circumstances might
arise, which might make the cession of it to us the price
of something of more worth to her. Not so can it ever
be in the hands of France : the impetuosity of her tem
per, the energy and restlessness of her character, placed
in a point of eternal friction with us, whilst our character,
which, though quiet and loving peace and the pursuit of
wealth, is high-minded, despising wealth in competition
with insult or injury, enterprising and energetic as any
nation on earth, are circumstances which render it im
possible that France and the United States can continue
long friends, when they meet in so irritable a position.
They, as well as we, must be blind, if they do not see
this ; and we must be very improvident if we do not be
gin to make arrangements on that hypothesis. The day
that France takes possession of New-Orleans, fixes the
sentence which is to restrain her for ever within her low-
water mark. It seals the union of two nations, who, in
conjunction, can maintain exclusive possession of the
ocean. From that moment we must marry ourselves to
the British fleet and nation. We must turn all our at
tentions to a maritime force, for which our resources

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 323

place us on very high ground : and having formed and
connected together a power which may render reinforce
ment of her settlements here impossible to France, make
the first cannon which shall be fired in Europe the sig
nal for tearing up any settlement she may have made,
and for holding the two continents of America in seques
tration for the common purposes of the United British
and American nations. This is not a state of things we
seek or desire. It is one which this measure, if adopted
by France, forces on us as necessarily, as any other
cause, by the laws of nature, brings on its necessary ef
fect. It is not from a fear of France that we deprecate
this measure proposed by her. For however greater
her force is than ours, compared in the abstract, it is
nothing in comparison of ours, when to be exerted on
our soil. But it is from a sincere love of peace, and a
firm persuasion, that, bound to France by the interests
and the strong sympathies still existing in the minds
of our citizens, and holding relative positions which in
sure their continuance, we are secure of a long course of
peace. Whereas, the change of friends, which will be
rendered necessary if France changes that position, em
barks us necessarily as a belligerent power in the first
war of Europe. In that case, France will have held
possession of New-Orleans during the interval of a peace,
long or short, at the end of which it will be wrested from
her. Will this short lived possession have been an equiv
alent to her for the transfer of such a weight into the
scale of her enemy ? Will not the amalgamation of a
young, thriving nation, continue to that enemy the health
and force which are at present so evidently on the de
cline ? And will a few years possession of New-Or
leans add equally to the strength of France ? She may
say she needs Louisiana for the supply of her West In
dies. She does not need it in time of peace, and in war
she could not depend on them, because they would be so
easily intercepted. I should suppose that all these con
siderations might, in some proper form, be brought into
view of the government of France. Though stated by
us, it ought not to give offence ; because we do not bring
them forward as a menace, hut as consequences not con
trollable by us, but inevitable from the course of things.

324 LIFE OF

We mention them not as things which we desire by any
means, but as things we deprecate ; and we beseech a
friend to look forward arid to prevent them for our com
mon interests.

I have no doubt you have urged these considerations,
on every proper occasion, with the government where
you are. They are such as must have effect, if you can
find means of producing thorough reflection on them by
that government. The idea here is, that the troops sent
to St Domingo, were to proceed to Louisiana after fin
ishing their work in that island. If this were the ar
rangement, it will give you time to return again and
again to the charge. For the conquest of St Domingo
will not be a short work. It will take considerable time,
and wear down a great number of soldiers. Every eye in
the United States is now fixed on the affairs of Louisiana.
Perhaps nothing, since the revolutionary war, has pro
duced more uneasy sensations through the body of the na
tion. Notwithstanding temporary bickerings have taken
place with France, she has still a strong hold on the affec
tions of our citizens generally. I have thought it not amiss,
by way of supplement to the letters of the secretary of
State, to write you this private one, to impress you with
the importance we affix to this transaction. I pray you
to cherish Dupont. He has the best dispositions for the
continuance of friendship between the two nations, and
perhaps you may be able to make a good use of him.

On the 30th of April 1803, the negociation was con
cluded, and the entire province of Louisiana was ceded
to the United States for the sum of fifteen millions of
dollars. The American negociators seized the favorable
moment to urge the claims of American merchants on
the French government, for spoliations on their proper
ty, which were allowed to the amount of three millions
seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and the bar
gain was thus closed. This important acquisition more
than doubled the territory of the United States, trebled
the quantity of fertile country, secured the uncontrolled
navigation of the Mississippi and its tributaries, and
opened an independent outlet for the produce of

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 325

the western States, free from collision with other pow
ers, and the perpetual dangers to our peace from that
source. The treaty was received with approbation by
the great majority of the nation. There were some,
however, particularly in the eastern States, who wrote
and declaimed strenuously against it. They saw in the
great enlargement of our territory the seeds of a future
dismemberment of the union, by a separation into east
ern and western confederacies. On the other hand, it
was the opinion of the president, that the acquisition
would prove an additional bond of union, rather than a
cause of dismemberment ; that the larger our associa
tion was, the less it would be shaken by local factions ;
and that no one could presume to limit the extent to
which the federative principle might operate effectively.
Mr Madison maintained the same opinion in the Feder
alist ; and experience has hitherto confirmed it. But in
any view of the case, were those apocryphal dangers
worthy a moment s consideration, when contrasted with
the certain and incalculable blessings of the conquest,*
as well positive and immediate, as by the avoidance in
future, of those interminable calamities which would
have ensued from a contrary state of things 1 Was it
not better that the opposite bank of the Mississippi should
be settled by our own brethren and children, than by
strangers of adverse feelings and principles 1 With
which should we have been most likely to have lived in
harmony and friendly intercourse, down to the present
day?

To General GATES. I accept with pleasure, and
with pleasure reciprocate your congratulations on the
acquisition of Louisiana : for it is a subject of mutual
congratulation, as it interests every man of the nation.
The territory acquired, as it includes all the waters of
the Missouri aud Mississippi, has more than doubled the
area of the United States, and the new part is not infe
rior to the old, in soil, climate, productions, and impor-
28*

326

LIFE OP

tant communications. If our legislature dispose of it
with the wisdom we have a right to expect, they may
make it the means of tempting all our Indians on the
east side of the Mississippi to remove to the West, and of
condensing instead of scattering our population.

To M. DUPONT DE NEMOURS. * The treaty which has
so happily sealed the friendship of our two countries, has
been received here with general acclamation. Some in
flexible opponents have still ventured to brave the public
opinion. For myself and my country I thank you for
the aids you have given in it ; and I congratulate you
on having lived to give those aids in a transaction replete
with blessings to unborn millions of men, and which will
mark the face of a portion on the globe so extensive as
that which now composes the United States of America.
* * * Our policy will be to form New Orleans and
the country on both sides of it on the Gulf of Mexico,
into a State ; and, as to all above that, to transplant our
Indians into it, constituting them a Marechausscc to pre
vent emigrants crossing the river, until we shall have fil
led up all the vacant country on this side. This willse-
cure both Spain and us as to the mines of Mexico, for
half a century, and we may safely trust the provisions
for that time to the men who shall live in it.

When the treaty arrived, the president convened Con
gress at the earliest day practicable, for its ratification
and execution. The federalists in both houses declaim
ed and voted against it, but they were now so reduced in
numbers as to be incapable of serious opposition. The
question on its ratification in the senate was decided by
twenty-four against seven. The vote in the house of rep
resentatives for making provision for its execution, was
carried by eighty-nine against twenty-three. Mr Pichon,
minister of France, proposed, according to instructions
from his government, to have added to the ratification a
protestation against any failure in time or other circum
stances of execution on our part. He was told by the
president, that in that case a counter protestation would
be annexed on our part, which would leave the thing

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 327

exactly where it was ; that the negotiation had been con
ducted from the commencement to its present stage,
with a frankness and sincerity honorable to both nations:
that to annex to this last chapter of the transaction such
an evidence of mutual distrust, would be to change its
aspect dishonorably to both parties ; that we had not
the smallest doubt that France would purictuallyxecute
her part. Seeing the ratification passed, and the bills
for execution carrying by large majorities in both hou
ses, Mr Pichon, like an able and honest minister, un
dertook to do what he knew his employers would have
done with a like knowledge of the circumstances, and ex
changed the ratifications. Commissioners were imme
diately deputed to receive possession. They proceeded
to New Orleans with such regular troops as were garri
soned in the nearest posts, and some militia of the Mis
sissippi territory. To be prepared for any thing unex
pected, which might arise out of the transaction, a re
spectable body of militia was ordered to be in readiness
in the states of Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. No oc
casion, however, arose for their services. Our commis
sioners, on their arrival at New Orleans, found the prov
ince already delivered by the commissaries of Spain to
that of France, who delivered it over to them on the
20th of December, 1803.

The circumstance ought not to be overlooked that
this mighty acquisition, exceeding in territory the great
est monarchy in Europe, was achieved without the guilt
or calamities of blood, from a military autocrat, whose
ceaseless ambition was a universality of empire, and
who, in the untamable pursuit of his purpose, went on
demolishing nations at a blow, and partitioning the earth
at pleasure, until vanquished by the consolidated power
of Europe. * There is no country, says a writer, like
the valley of the Mississippi on the face of the globe.
Follow the mighty amphitheatre of rocks that nature has
heaped around it. Trace the ten thousand rivers that

328 LIFE OF

unite their waters in the mighty Mississippi ; count the
happy millions that already crowd and animate their
banks loading their channels with a mighty produce.
Then see the whole, bound by the hand of nature in
chains which God alone can sever, to a perpetual union
at one little connecting point ; and by that point fasten
ing itself by every tie of interest, consanguinity, and
feeling, to the remotest promontory on our Atlantic
coast. A few short years have done all this ; and yet
ages are now before us : ages in which myriads are des
tined to multiply throughout its wide spread territory,
extending the greatness and the happiness of our country
from sea to sea. What would we have been without the
acquisition of Louisiana 1 What were we before it 1
God and nature fixed the unalterable decree, that the
nation which held New Orleans should govern the whole
of that vast region. France, Spain, and Great Britain,
had bent their envious eyes upon it. And their intrigues,
if matured, would eventually have torn from us that vast
paradise which reposes upon the western waters.
Other conquests bring with them misery and oppression
to the luckless inhabitant. This brought emancipation,
civil and religious freedom, laws, wealth.

The humane and conciliatory policy extended to
wards the Indians on our frontiers, was another distin
guishing feature of the administration. A free and
friendly commerce was opened between them and the
United States. Trading houses were established among
them, and necessaries furnished them in exchange for
their commodities, at such moderate prices as were only
a remuneration to us, while highly advantageous to them.
Instead of relying on an augmentation of military force,
proportioned to our constant extension of frontier, the
president recommended a gradual enlargement of the
capital employed in this species of commerce, as a more
effectual, economical and humane instrument for pre
serving peace with the aborigines. The visible and tan-

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 329

gible advantages of civilization were spread before their
eyes, with a view to train their minds insensibly to the
reception of its moral blessings. They were liberally
supplied with the implements of husbandry, and house
hold use* instructors in the arts of first necessity were
stationed and maintained among them ; the introduction
of ardent spirits into their limits, was prohibited, at the
request of many of their chiefs ; and the punishment of
death by hanging was commuted into death by military
execution, which was less repugnant to their minds, and
diminished the obstacles to the surrender of the criminal.

The practice of the art of vaccination, first success
fully introduced into this country by the exertions of
president Jefferson, was made by him to diffuse its bles
sings among the Indians, with an effect as astonishing as
it was humane and endearing. The terrible pestilence,
of which this discovery proved an antidote, .was even
more fatal in its ravages among the natives of the wil
derness than in civilized society. The medical skill of
their physicians had riot attained even to an assuagement
of its violence. Whole tribes were swept away at a blast.
They opposed no other shield against its attacks than
flight, or the fortitude of martyrs. By the persuasions
and exertions of the president, they were induced to be
lieve in the efficacy of vaccination as a preventive. Com
ing from so good a father, they thought it must have been
sent him from the Great Spirit ; and whole nations sub
mitted to the process of inoculation, with the warmest
benedictions on their benevolent protector.

These conciliatory measures of the government, with
the most rigorous enactments against the intrusion of in
cendiaries and hostile emissaries, established and main
tained a course of friendly relations with the Indians,
which was uninterrupted by war with any tribe during
Mr Jefferson s administration. Out of this continued state
of peace and reciprocal kindness, treaties sprung up
annually, which secured to the United States great ac-

330

LIFE OF

cessions to their territorial title. The same year of the
acquisition of Louisiana, was distinguished by the purchase
from the Kaskaskias of that vast and fertile country ex
tending along the Mississippi, from the mouth of the
Illinois to the Ohio ; which was followed, "the next
year, by the relinquishment from the Delawares of the
native title to all the country between the W abash and
Ohio. These acquisitions comprehended the territory
which forms the present states of Illinois and Indiana.
They were soon followed by other purchases of great
extent and fertility, from the northern tribes, and from
the Chickasaws, Cherokees and Creeks of the southern.
The amount of national domain, to which the native ti
tle was extinguished under Mr Jefferson, embraced near
ly one hundred millions of acres. In exchange for this,
with the addition of an uninterrupted peace with them,
the United States had only to pay inconsiderable annui
ties in animals, in money, in the implements of agricul*
ture, and to extend to them their patrp.nage and protec
tion,

The administration of Mr Jefferson in relation to for
eign powers, was based upon the broad principles of his
inaugural maxim- peace, commerce, and honest friend
ship with all nations, entangling alliances with none.
His opinions on commerce were the same as those incul
cated in his report in 93 ; and they were such as have
since been sanctioned by the government. The ports
of the United States were declared open to all nations
without distinction, and the unmolested enjoyment of the
ocean, as the common theatre of navigation, was claim
ed as an inviolable right. Freedom was offered for
freedom, and prohibition was opposed to prohibition
with every nation on the globe. A free system of com
merce, which should leave to nations the exchange of
mutual surplusses for mutual wants, on the basis of easy
and exact reciprocity, was his desire ; but if any nation,
deceived by calculations of interest into a contrary sys-

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 331

tern, should defeat that wish, his determination was fixed
to meet inequalities abroad by countervailing inequalities
at home, as the only effectual weapon of coercion and of
self-protection. With regard to treaties, it was the sys
tem of the president to have none with any nation, as
far as could be avoided.

The United States were not in a situation to command
reciprocal advantages, and to none other would he suc
cumb by a written compact. The existing treaties,
therefore, were permitted to expire without renewal,
and all overtures for treaty with other nations were de
clined. He believed also, that with nations as with in
dividuals, dealings might be carried on as advantageous
ly, perhaps more so, while their continuance depended
on voluntary and reciprocal good treatment, as if fixed
by a permanent contract, which, when it became injuri
ous to either party, was made, by forced constructions,
to mean what suited them, and became a cause of war,
instead of a bond of peace. He had a perfect horror at
every thing like connecting ourselves with the politics
of Europe. They were governed by so many false prin
ciples, that he deemed a temporary acquiescence under
these, preferable to entangling ourselves with them by
alliances extorted from our present imbecility on the
water. Peace was now our most important interest,
and a recovery from debt. * If we can delay but for a
few years, he wrote to an American minister, the ne
cessity of vindicating the laws of nature on the ocean,
we shall be the more sure of doing it with effect. The
day is within my time as well as yours^ when we may suy
by what laws other nations shall treat us on the sea. And
we will say it. In the mean time we wish to let every
treaty we have drop off without renewal. With regard
to the British government, in particular, he had so little
confidence that they would voluntarily retire from their
habitual wrongs in the impressment of our seamen, that
without an express stipulation to that effect, he was sat-

332 LIFE OP

isfied we ought never to tie up our hands by treaty, from
the right of passing non-importation or non-intercourse
acts, to make it their interest to become just.

Out of this keen sensibility to maritime injuries, a
transaction arose which afforded a pretext for torrents
of abuse upon the president. A committee of the senate
called on him with two resolutions of that body on the
subject of impressment and spoliations by Great Britain,
and urged the importance of an extraordinary mission,
to demand satisfaction. The president was averse to
the measure. The members of the other house applied
to him individually, and represented the responsibility
which a failure to obtain redress would throw on him,
while pursuing a course in opposition to the opinion of
nearly every member of the legislature. He found it
necessary, at length, to yield to the general sense of the
legislative body ; and accordingly nominated Mr Mon
roe as minister extraordinary, to join Mr Pinckney, at
the British Court. Explicit instructions were given
them to conclude no treaty without a specific article
guarding against impressments. After a tedious nego
tiation they succeeded in concluding a treaty the best
probably that could be procured but containing no pro
vision against future aggressions on our seamen, which
was made an express sine qua non in their instructions.
There was no excuse for such an omission ; for on re
ceiving information from our negociators, that they had
it in their power to sign such a treaty, the president in
return had apprised them that should it be forwarded it
could not be ratified, and he recommended a resumption
of negociations for inserting the stipulation in question.
The treaty came to hand exactly in the exceptionable
shape which the administration had predetermined
against. The president rejected it on his own respon
sibility, and transmitted instructions to put the treaty
into an acceptable form, if practicable; otherwise, to
back out of the negociation as well as they could.

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 333

Besides the abandonment of the principle which was
the great object of the extraordinary mission, there were
other material objections to the treaty, which were sup
posed to justify the president in rejecting it. The Brit
ish commissioners appeared to have screwed every ar
ticle as far as it would bear, to have surrendered nothing,
and taken every thing. There was but a single article
in the treaty, the expunging of which would have left
such a preponderance of evil in all the others, as to have
made it worse than no treaty ; and even that article ad
mitted only our right to enjoy the indirect colonial trade,
during the present hostilities. If peace was made that
year, and war resumed the next, the benefit of this stip
ulation was gone, and yet we were bound for ten years,
to pass no non-importation or non-intercourse laws, nor
take any other measures to restrain the usurpations of
the Leviathan of the ocean. And to crown the whole,
a protestation was annexed by the British ministers, at
the time of the signature, the effect of which was to leave
that government free to consider it a treaty or no treaty,
according to their own convenience, while it bound the
United States finally and unconditionally.

This proceeding of the president was considered a fa
tal error by the opponents of the administration ; and
many sensible republicans were inclined to the opinion
that he should have consulted the co-ordinate branch of
the treaty-making power, on the question of rejection.
But the constitution has made the concurrence of both
branches necessary to the confirmation, not to the re
jection of a treaty ; and where that instrument has con
fided independent matters to either department of gov
ernment, it is the right and duty of such department to
decide independently as to the course it shall pursue.
Mr Jefferson acted upon this construction ; and the same
principle has been recognized, in repeated instances,
under federal and republican adminstrations. The lead
ing principle of the constitution evidently is the inde-
29

334 LIFE OP

*

pendence of the legislature, executive and judiciary, of
each other ; arid the utmost jealousy should be exercised
by each, to prevent either of the others from becoming
a despotic branch. This was the deliberate opinion of
Mr Jefferson, on which he always acted, and declared
he would ever act, and maintain it with the powers of
the government, against any control which might be at
tempted by the judiciary or legislature in subversion of
his right to move independently in his peculiar province.
Examples in which the position has been maintained,
and sufficient to establish its soundness, have abounded
in the practice of the government.

The opinions of the president on the subject of the
navy, were not, perhaps such as have been generally ap
proved ; though it is certain they have been greatly mis
understood and misrepresented. Serious apprehensions
were entertained by the federal party that Mr Jefferson
would annihilate the whole marine establishment ; but
they were totally discredited by the event. His first act,
after having executed the law passed under his prede
cessor, for the sale of certain vessels and reducing the
number of our naval officers, was to *fit out a squadron
for the Mediterranean, to resist a threatened aggression
from Tripoli ; and this force, subsequently increased
from time to time by his recommendations, was the
means of effecting the suppression of Algerine pira
cy. He afterwards recommended the construction of
some additional vessels of strength, to be in readiness
for the first moment of war, provided they could be pre
served from decay and perpetual expense by being kept
in ordinary. But the majority of the legislature were
opposed to any augmentation of the navy ; and none
consequently was made. This circumstance is worthy of
notice, as illustrative of the fact that Mr Jefferson was
less hostile to the navy than the great body of his sup
porters. I know, says a gentleman* who executed

* Samuel Smith.

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 335

the duties of that department for some time, * that no
man was a greater friend to the navy than Mr Jefferson.
His acts brought it into notice its own gallantry and
bravery have done the rest it now occupies a proud
station in the eyes of the world. The bravery displayed
by the Mediterranean squadron, in the war with Tripo
li, raised the American character in Europe, and gave
to our officers confidence in themselves. By affording
them much instruction and an opportunity of acquiring
a practical knowledge of their profession, it prepared
them for a future contest, in which they crowned them
selves and their country with glory fought their way
to popularity at home, to the admiration of the world,
and to the affections of their countrymen. It is more
over generally admitted that the efforts of Mr Jefferson
while in Paris, to form a perpetual alliance of the prin
cipal European powers against the Barbary States, and
subsequently, while secretary of State, to induce the ad
ministration to dispatch a force into the Mediterranean
adequate to the protection of our commerce, laid the
first foundations of the American navy. Upon this point,
there is extant the authority of a gentleman, whose
knowledge of the subject enabled him to pronounce an
opinion, which will not be questioned. The following
letter from John Adams to Mr Jefferson, in 1822, with
the answer of the latter annexed, places the history of
the American navy in a light which ought to go far to
wards removing the injurious misapprehensions that have
prevailed on the subject.

I have long entertained scruples about writing this
letter, upon a subject of some delicacy. But old age has
overcome them at last.

4 You remember the four ships ordered by congress to
be built, and the four captains appointed by Washing
ton ; Talbot, and Truxton, and Barry, &c, to carry an
ambassador to Algiers, and protect our commerce in the
Mediterranean. I have always imputed this measure to

336 LIFE OF

you, for several reasons. First, because you frequently
proposed it to me while we were at Paris, negociating
together for peace with the Barbary powers. Secondly,
because I knew that Washington and Hamilton were
not only indifferent about a navy, but averse to it. There
was no secretary of the navy ; only four heads of depart
ment. You were secretary of State ; Hamilton, secretary
of the treasury; Rnox, secretary of war; and I believe
Bradford was attorney general. I have always suspect
ed that you and Knox were in favor of a navy. If Brad
ford was so, the majority was clear. But Washington,
lam confident, was against it in his judgment. But
his attachment to Knox, and his deference to your
opinion, for I know he had a great regard for you, might
induce him to decide in favor of you and Knox, even
though Bradford united with Hamilton in opposition to
you. That Hamilton was averse to the measure, I have
personal evidence ; for while it was pending, he came in a
hurry and a fit of impatience to make a visit to me. He
said he was likely to be called upon for a large sum of mo
ney to build ships of war to fight the Algerines, and he
asked ray opinion of-the measure. I answered him that I
was clearly in favor of it. For I had always been of
opinion, from the commencement of the revolution, that
a navy was the most powerful, the safest, and the cheap
est national defence for this country, My advice, there
fore was, that as much of the revenue as could possibly
be spared, should be applied to the building and equip
ping of ships. The conversation was of some length,
but it was manifest in his looks and in his air, that he
was disgusted at the measure, as well as at the opinion
that I had expressed.

4 Mrs Knox not long since wrote a letter to Doctor
Waterhouse, requesting him to procure a commission for
her son in the navy ; c that navy, says her ladyship, * of
which his father was the parent. For, says she, 4 I
have frequently heard General Washington say to my
husband, the navy was your child. I have always be
lieved it to be Jefferson s child, though Knox may have
assisted in ushering it into the world. Hamilton s hob
by was the army. That Washington was averse to a
navy, I had full proof from his own lips, in many differ-

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 337

ent conversations, some of them of length, in which he
always insisted that it was only building and arming ships
for the English. Si quid novisti rcctius istis, candidus
imperil; si non, his utere mecum.

Mr Jefferson s reply :

4 1 have racked my memory and ransacked my papers,
to enable myself to answer the enquiries of your favor of
October the 15th ; but to little purpose. My papers
furnish me nothing ; my memory, generalities only. I
know that while I was in Europe, and anxious about the
fate of our seafaring men, for some of whom, then in
captivity in Algiers, we were treating, and all were in
like danger, I formed, undoubtingly, the opinion that
our government, as soon as practicable, should provide
a naval force sufficient to keep the Barbary States in or
der ; and on this subject we communicated together, as
you observe. When I returned to the United States, and
took part, in the administration under General Washing
ton, I constantly maintained that opinion ; and in De
cember, 1790, took advantage of a reference to me from
the first Congress which met after I was in office, to re
port in favor of a force sufficient for the protection of
our Mediterranean commerce ; and I laid before them
an accurate statement of the whole Barbary force, pub
lic and private. I think General Washington approved
of building vessels of war to that extent. General Knox
I know did. But what was Colonel Hamilton s opinion,
I do not in the least remember. Your recollections on
that subject are certainly corroborated by his known
anxieties for a close connection with Great Britain, to
which he might apprehend danger from collisions be-*
tween their vessels and ours. Randolph was then attor
ney general ; but his opinion on the question I also en-,
tirely forget. Some vessels of war were accordingly
built and sent into the Mediterranean. The additions
to these in your time, I need not note to you, who are
well known to have ever been an advocate for the wood
en walls of Themistocles. Some of those you added,
were sold under an act of congress passed while you
were in office. I thought, afterwards, that the public
safety might require some additional vessels of strength,
29*

338 LIFE OF

to be prepared and in readiness for the first moment of
a war, provided they could be preserved against the de
cay which is unavoidable if kept in the water, and clear
of the expense of officers and men. With this view I
proposed that they should be built in dry docks, above
the level of the tide waters, and covered with roofs. I
farther advised, that places for these docks should be se
lected where there was a command of water on a high
level, as that of the Tiber at Washington, by which the
vessels might be floated out on the principle of a lock.
But the majority of the legislature was against any ad
dition to the navy, and the minority, although for it in
judgment, voted against it on a principle of opposition.
We are now, I understand, building vessels to remain
on the stocks, under shelter, until wanted, when they
will be launched and finished. On. my plan they could
be in service at an hour s notice. On this, the finishing,
after launching, will be a work of time.

This is all I recollect about the origin and progress
of our navy. That of the late war, certainly raised our
rank and character among nations. Yet a navy is a ve
ry expensive engine. It is admitted, that in ten or twelve
years a vessel goes to entire decay ; or, if kept in repair,
costs as much as would build a new one : and that a na
tion who could count on twelve or fifteen years of peace,
would gain by burning its navy and building a new one
in time. Its extent, therefore, must be governed by cir
cumstances. Since my proposition for a force adequate
to the piracies of the Mediterranean, a similar necessity
has arisen in our own seas for considerable addition to
that force. Indeed, I wish we could have a convention
with the naval powers of Europe, for them to keep down
the pirates of the Mediterranean, and the slave ships on
the coast of Africa, and for us to perform the same du
ties for the society of nations in our seas. In this way,
those collisions would be avoided between the vessels of
war of different nations, which beget wars ; and consti
tute the weightiest objection to navies. I salute you
with constant affection and respect.

It appears that the only difference of opinion between
these illustrious statesmen on the subject of a navy, was

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 339

as to the extent to which it should be carried. Mr
Adams was for a heavy establishment, ready at all times,
and sufficient to compete with that of the most powerful
nation on the water, the moment it should become our
adversary. Mr Jefferson thought that its extent should
always be regulated by circumstances ; and this is pro
bably the republican doctrine. Being a very expensive
engine, both in its first creation, and in its maintenance
against the unavoidable ravages of time, he was for re
straining it in time of peace to a force sufficient only for
the protection of our commerce ; and for confining all
naval preparations against the contingency of war, to
the building of ships in dry docks, where they could be
kept free from decay, from the expense of officers and
men, and ready at any moment for actual service.

In addition to the incompetency of our resources to
maintain a powerful navy, other and weighty objections
existed at this time, which always had great influence on
the mind of the President. The necessary multiplica
tion of habitual violations of natural right, in the form of
impressments, and the collisions from other sources, fitted
to embroil us continually with the nations whom we
could indeed master on the land, were sensible reasons
against exhausting our strength on a navy, and transfer
ring the scene of combat to a theatre where the enemy
were omnipotent and we were nothing. To these might
perhaps be added, equality in the distribution of the pub
lic burthen, a favorite principle of administration with
the president. One portion of the union, whose contri
butions were least, would be elevated to greatness and
wealth, to the depression ofcmother portion, whose con
tributions were greatest, and pecuniary remuneration
comparatively little. If there was error in this consider
ation, it was founded in a too great anxiety for the good
of the whole, rather than an undue influence of sectional
feeling, of which a suspicion could scarcely find place
even in the credulity of his enemies.

340 LIFE OP-

The plan for the establishment of dry docks, in pur
suance of his naval system, was always a fruitful theme
of raillery against the president; and yet, it is some
what surprising that the principle should have since
been sanctioned by the government, and have obtained
the concurrent approbation of the greatest maritime
powers in Europe. A plan, agreeing in its chief features
with that of Mr Jefferson, though inferior to it in others,
has since been adopted, both in this country and in
Europe, for preventing ships from early decay by keep
ing them out of the water, and protecting them from the
weather. The most prodigal and aristocratic govern
ments on the globe have now become converts to a prac
tice, which it was alleged, originated in parsimony and
ignorance.

The use of gun-boats, which composed a part of the
naval system recommended by the president, has receiv
ed an unlimited measure of condemnation at the hands
of his political opponents. They were principally in
tended, in connection witli land batteries, for the defence
of our harbors and sea-port towns. The outlines of the
plan are exhibited in the following statement of the pre
sident.

c If we cannot hinder vessels from entering our har
bors, we should turn our attention to the putting it out
of their power to lie, or come to, before a town, to injure
it. Two means of doing this may be adopted in aid of
each other. 1. Heavy cannon on travelling carriages,
which may be moved to any point on the bank or beach
most convenient for dislodging the vessel. A sufficient
number of these should be lent to each sea-port town,
and their militia trained to them. The executive is au
thorized to do this ; it has been done in a smaller de
gree, and will now be done more competently.

2. Having cannon on floating batteries or boats,
which may be so stationed as to prevent a vessel enter
ing the harbor, or force her, after entering, to depart.
There are about fifteen harbors in the United States,
which ought to be in a state of substantial defence. The

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 341

whole of these would require, according to the best
opinions, two hundred and forty gun-boats. Their cost
was estimated by Captain Rodgers at two thousand dol
lars each ; but we had better say four thousand dollars.
The whole would cost one million of dollars. But we
should allow ourselves ten years to complete it, unless
circumstances should force it sooner. There are three
situations in which the gun-boat may be. 1. Hauled up
under a shed, in readiness to be launched and manned
by the seamen and militia of the town on short notice.
In this situation she costs nothing but an enclosure, or a
sentinel to see that no mischief is done to her. 2. Afloat,
and with men enough to navigate her in harbor and take
care of her, but depending on receiving her crew from
the town on short warning. In this situation, her annual
expense is about two thousand dollars, as by an official
estimate at the end of this letter. 3. Fully manned for
action. Her annual expense in this situation is about
eight thousand dollars, as per estimate subjoined. "When
there is general peace, we should probably keep about
six or seven afloat in the second situation; their annual
expense twelve to fourteen thousand dollars ; the rest all
hauled up. When France and England are at war, we
should keep, at the utmost, twenty-five in the second
situation, their annual expense fifty thousand dollars.
When we should be at war ourselves, some of them would
probably be kept in the third situation, at an annual ex
pense of eight thousand dollars ; but how many, must
depend on the circumstances of the war. We now pos
sess ten, built and building. It is the opinion of those
consulted, that fifteen more would enable us to put every
harbor under our view into a respectable condition; and
that this should limit the views of the present year. This
would require an appropriation of sixty thousand dollars,
and I suppose that the best way of limiting it, without
declaring the number, as perhaps that sum would build
more.

In the Mediterranean, the superiority of gun-boats for
harbor service has been illustrated by experience. Al
giers is known to have owed the safety of its city since
the epoch of their construction, to these vessels. Before
that, it had been repeatedly insulted and injured. The

342 LIFE OP

effect of gun-boats in the neighborhood of Gibraltar is
well known, and how much they were used both in the
attack and defence of that place, during a former war.
The remarkable action, between the Russian flotilla of
gun-boats and galleys, and a Turkish fleet of ships of
the line and frigates, in the Lirnan sea, in 1788, is mat
ter of historical record. The latter, were completely
defeated, and several of their ships of the line destroyed.
There is not, it is believed, a maritime nation in Europe,
which has not adopted the same species of armament for
the defence of some of its harbors.; the English and
French certainly have; by the northern powers of the
continent, whose seas are particularly adapted to them,
they are still more used ; and the only occasion on which
Admiral Nelson was ever foiled, was by gun-boats at
Boulogne.

Mr Jefferson was re-elected by a vote of one hundred
and sixty-two against fourteen. The only States which
voted for his opponent, Pirickney, were Connecticut and
Delaware, with two districts in Maryland. George Clin
ton was elected vice president by the same majority over
Rufus King. The unanimity of the vote on the present
occasion, while it pronounced judgment of approbation
on the character of the administration, is really unexam
pled in the history of the United States, considering the
circumstances of the times. The vote subsequently given
to Mr Monroe, though more nearly unanimous, was much
less extraordinary. The latter vote was given in a sea
son of cairn; the former amid the violence of a po
litical tempest. Every other chief magistrate also, ex
cept General Jackson, has rode into ^office on the same
tide of opinion that sustained his predecessor. They
alone on an opposing one ; and in four years Mr Jeffer
son nearly amalgamated both currents in his favor.

On the 4th of March, 1805, Mr Jefferson re-entered
upon the duties of the chief magistracy for another term.
The same absence of all parade and ostentation, that

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 343

characterized the former, was rigorously observed on the
present occasion.

In his second inaugural message, Mr Jefferson speaks
of the influence of seditious intruders, operating upon
the prejudices and ignorance of the Indians, which had
always embarrassed the general government in its efforts
to change their pursuits, and ameliorate their unhappy
condition. These persons, said he, * inculcate a sanc
timonious reverence for the customs of their ancestors;
that whatsoever they did must be done through all time ;
that reason is a false guide, and to advance under its
council in their physical, moral, or political condition, is
perilous innovation ; that their duty is to remain as their
Creator made them, ignorance being safety, and know
ledge full of danger ; in short, my friends, among them
is seen the action and counteraction of good sense and
bigotry ; they too, have their anti philosophers, who find
an interest in keeping things in their present state, who
dread reformation, arid exert all their faculties to main
tain the ascendency of habit over the duty of improving
our reason and obeying its mandates.

New principles were advanced, regarding the appro
priation of the surplus revenue of the nation, after the
final redemption of the public debt. The epoch being
not far distant, when that propitious event might be
safely calculated to happen, the president thought it a
fit occasion to suggest his views on the most eligible
arrangement and disposal of the public contributions,
upon the basis which would then be presented. Should
the impost duties be suppressed, and that advantage
given to foreign over domestic manufactures ? Should
they be diminished, and upon what principles ? Or should
they be continued, and applied to the purposes of inter
nal improvement, education, &c ? were questions which
he submitted to the consideration of the people, and sub
sequently urged upon the attention of the legislature in
his official communications. The president did not hesi-

344 LIFE OF

tate to recommend that the revenue, when liberated by
the redemption of the public debt, should, by a just repar
tition among the States and a corresponding amend
ment of the constitution, be applied in time of peace, to
rivers, canals, roads, arts, "manufactures, education, and
other great objects of public utility within each State ;
and in time of war, to defraying the accumulated ex
penses of such a crisis from year to year, to which the
current resources would be fully adequate, without en
croaching on the rights of future generations by burthen-
ing them with the debts of the past. War would then
be but a suspension for the time being, of useful works;
and the restoration of peace, a return to the progress of
improvement, untrammeled by pecuniary embarrass
ments. Instead therefore of reducing the revenue aris
ing from the consumption of foreign articles, to the actual
amount necessary for the current expenses of the go
vernment, the president recommended its continuance
with certain modifications, and its application to works
of internal improvement. On some articles of more
general and necessary use, he advised a suppression of
the impost ; but the great mass of the articles on which
duties were paid, "were foreign luxuries, purchased by
those who were rich enough to use them without feeling
the tax. Their patriotism certainly, he thought, would
prefer a continuance of the general system which, while
not oppressive to themselves, would prove advantageous
to the nation, by furnishing the means of public educa
tion, roads, rivers, canals, and such other objects of pub
lic improvement as it might be thought proper to add to
the constitutional enumeration of federal powers. By
these operations new channels of communication would
be opened between the States, the lines of separation be
made to disappear, their interests be identified, and their
union cemented by new and indissoluble ties.

He placed education among the first arid worthiest of
the objects of public care in its application of the surplus

THOMAS JEFFERSON. . 345

revenue ; not with a view to take its ordinary branches
out of the hands of private enterprise, which managed
so much better all the concerns to which it was equal ;
but for the purpose of enlarging its sphere by supplying
those sciences which, though rarely called for, were yet
necessary to complete the circle, all the parts of which
contributed to the improvement of the nation, and some
of them to its preservation. In pursuance of this idea,
he recommended to the consideration of Congress the
establishment of a National University, with such an ex
tension of the federal powers as should bring it within
their jurisdiction. He believed an amendment of the
constitution, by consent of the States, necessary as well
for this, as for the other objects of public improvement,
which he recommended ; because they were not among
those enumerated in the constitution, and to which it
permitted the public money to be applied. So early as
1806, he informed Congress, that by the time the State
legislatures should have deliberated upon the appropriate
amendment to the constitution, the necessary laws be
passed, and arrangements made for their execution, the
requisite amount of funds would be on hand and without
employment. He contributed liberally to the establish
ment of the proposed institution, permitted his name to
be placed at the head of it, and used every exertion to
carry it into operation ; but the germ was unhappily
blighted by sectional jealousies.

The happy and advantageous train in which the affairs
of the nation were established during the president s first
term, left little for the remainder of his administration
except to maintain peace and neutrality amidst the con
vulsions of a warring world, and to rescue the union
from one of the most nefarious and daring conspiracies
recorded in modern history. The measures called into
action by these two formidable difficulties, developed
two opposite extremes of character in the government,
which were so admirably adapted each to its respective
30

346 LIFE OF

exigency, as to have worked out for the country an al
most supernatural deliverance. The forbearance and
moderation manifested under the pressure of the crisis,
were as necessary to our safety, as the energy and
promptitude with which the internal enemy was crushed,
and laid prostrate at the feet of government.

The traitorous conspiracy of Burr was one of the most
flagitious of which history will ever furnish an example ;
and there was probably not a person in the United States
who entertained a doubt of the real guilt of the accused.
His purpose was to separate the western States from the
union, annex Mexico to them, establish a monarchical
government, with himself at the head, and thus provide
an example and an instrument for the subversion of our
liberties. The American Cataline, cool, sagacious and
wary, had probably engaged one thousand men to follow
his fortunes, without letting them know his projects,
farther than by assurances that the government approved
them. The great majority of his adherents took his as
sertion for this, but with those who would not, and were
unwilling to embark in his enterprises without the ap
probation of the government, the following stratagem
was practised. A forged letter, purporting to be from
the secretary of war, was made to express his approba
tion, and to say that the president was absent at Monti-
cello, but that on his return, the enterprise would be
sanctioned by him without hesitation. This letter was
spread open on Burr s table, so as to invite the eye of all
who entered his room. By this means he avoided expos
ing himself to any liability to prosecution for forgery,
while he proved himself a master in the arts of the con
spirator. The moment the proclamation of the president
appeared, undeceiving his deluded partisans, Burr found
himself stript of his surreptitious influence, and left with
about thirty desperadoes only. The people rose in mass
wherever he appeared or was suspected to be, and by
their energy the rebellion was crushed, without the ne-

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 347

cessity of employing a detachment of the military* except
to guard their respective stations. His first enterprise
was to have seized New Orleans, which he [supposed
would effectually bridle the upper country, reduce it to
ready subjection, and plant him at the door of Mexico
without an enemy in the rear. But, on unfurling the
ensigns of the union there was not a single native Creole,
and only one American, that did not abandon his stand
ard, and rally under the banners of the constitution. His
real partisans were the new emigrants from the United
States and elsewhere, fugitives from justice, disaffected
politicians, and desperate adventurers. The event was
a happy one. It was always a source of exultation to
the president, inasmuch as it realized his declaration on
assuming the helm of public affairs that a republican
government was the strongest one on earth, and the only
one, where every man at the call of the law, would fly
to the standard of the law, and would meet infractions
of the public order, as his own personal concern. The
atrocity of the crime, however, and the existence of the
most conclusive proof compelled him, as it did every
other reflecting mind, to seek in some other hypothesis
than the jealous provisions of the laws in favor of life,
the acquittal of this modern parricide. The result of the
trial astonished the world, and confounded the specta
tors, from whose minds every doubt had vanished, when
the investigation was suddenly arrested by the decision
of the court. The very verdict of the jury, that the
accused was not proved guilty by any evidence submitted
to them, was a virtual acknowledgment that the defect
was in the application of the law, or the law itself, not
in the evidence of guilt ; and this verdict was ordered to
be recorded simply, Not guilty. Indeed, all the con
sequences of the immovable tenure of the judiciary
except by process of impeachment and their conse
quent irresponsibility to any practicable control, were
conspicuously demonstrated on the present occasion. No

348 LIFE OF

farther evidence was wanting to fix the president unal
terably in the opinion which he had long entertained, that
in tkis defect of the constitution lurked the canker which
unless timely eradicated, was destined to destroy the
equilibrium of powers in the general government, and
between the general and state governments. In a letter
written at this time, he says :

4 All this, however, will work well. The nation will
judge both the offender and judges for themselves. If a
member of the executive or legislature does wrong, the
day is never far distant when the people will remove him.
They will see then, and amend the error in our constitu
tion, which makes any branch independent of the nation.
They will see that one of the great co-ordinate branches
of the government, setting itself in opposition to the
other two, and to the common sense of the nation, pro
claims impunity to that class of offenders which endeav
ors to overturn the constitution, and are themselves pro
tected in it by the constitution itself: for impeachment
is a farce which will not be tried again. If their pro
tection of Burr produces this amendment, it will do more
good than his condemnation would have done. Against
Burr, personally, I never had one hostile sentiment. I
never, indeed, thought him an honest, frank-dealing man,
but considered him as a crooked gun, or other perverted
machine, whose aim or shot you could never be sure of.
Still, while he possessed the confidence of the nation, I
thought it my duty to respect in him their confidence,
and to treat him as if he deserved it : and if his punish
ment can be commuted now for an useful amendment of
the constitution, I shall rejoice in it.

While on the subject of the independence of the judi
ciary, it may be proper to examine the opinions of Mr
Jefferson at a subsequent date, and under a more dispas
sionate contemplation of the question, than was practi
cable in the state of feeling excited by the case of Burr.
The tenure of good behavior allotted to the federal
judges, was a defect in the constitution of which no one
thought at the time of its adoption, nor until the tenden-

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 349

cies of the principle had begun to develope themselves
by action. The amplitude of jurisdiction assumed dur
ing the federal ascendency nearly co-extensive with the
common law, seem first to have awakened the thinking
part of the public in general, and Mr Jefferson in par
ticular, to a sense of the dangerous error which made
one of the three branches of government so effectually
independent of the nation. His solicitude upon this im
portant subject appeared to increase every year after
wards, following him steadily into his retirement, as new
occasions administered new aliment to his fears. The
following extract of a letter to William T. Barry in 1822,
evinces the state of his mind at that period, and the
earnestness of his endeavors to procure an amendment
of the constitution.

1 I consider the party division of whig and tory the
most wholesome which can exist in any government, and
well worthy of being nourished, to keep out those of a
more dangerous character. We already see the power,
installed for life, responsible to no authority (for impeach
ment is not even a scarecrow,) advancing with a noise
less and steady pace to the great object of consolidation.
The foundations are already deeply laid by their deci
sions, for the annihilation of constitutional State rights,
and the removal of every check, every counterpoise to
the ingulphing power of which themselves are to make a
sovereign part. If ever this vast country is brought
under a single government, it will be one of the most ex
tensive corruption, indifferent and incapable of a whole
some care over so wide a spread of surface. This will
not be borne, and you will have to choose between re
formation and revolution. If I know the spirit of this
country, the one or the other is inevitable. Before the
canker is become inveterate, before its venom has reach
ed so much of the body politic as to get beyond control,
remedy should be applied. Let the future appointments
of judges be for four or six years, and renewable by the
president and senate. This will bring their conduct, at
regular periods, under revision and probation, and may
30*

350 LIFE OF

keep them in equipoise between the general and spe
cial governments. We have erred in this point, by copy
ing England, where certainly it is a good thing to have
the judges independent of the King. But we have
omitted to copy their caution also, which makes a judge
removable on the address of both legislative houses.
That there should be public functionaries independent of
the nation, whatever may be their demerit, is a solecism
in a republic, of the first order of absurdity and incon
sistency.

At the revolution in England it was considered a great
point gained in favor of liberty, that the commissions of
the judges which had hitherto been during the pleasure
of the king, should thenceforth be given during good be
havior ; and that the question of good behavior should
be left to the vote of a simple majority in the two houses
of parliament. A judiciary dependant on the will of the
king, could never have been any other than an instru
ment of tyranny ; nothing then could be more salutary
than a change to the tenure of good behavior, with the
concomitant restraint of impeachment by a simple majo
rity. The founders of the American republic were more
cordial in their jealousies of the executive than either of
the other branches; so true was this of Mr- Jefferson in
particular, that he at first thought the qualified negative
given to that magistrate on all the laws, should have
been much farther restricted. They therefore, very pro
perly and consistently adopted the English reformation
of making the judges independent of the executive. But
in doing this they as little suspected they had made them
independent of the nation, by requiring a vote of two
thirds in the senatorial branch to effect a removal. Ex
perience has proved such a majority impracticable where
any defence is made, in a body of the strong political
partialities and antipathies which ordinarily prevail. In
the impeachment of judge Pickering of New Hampshire,
no defence was attempted, otherwise the party vote of

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 351

more than one third of the Senate would have acquitted
him.

The judiciary of the United States, then, is an irres
ponsible body ; and history has established, if reason
could not have foreseen, its slow and noiseless accession
of influence, under the sanctuary of such a tenure. If
the mischief is acknowledged, the only question should
be, not when, but what should be the remedy ? * I would
not, indeed, says Mr Jefferson, make the judges de
pendent on the executive authority, as they formerly
were in England ; but I deem it indispensable to the
continuance of this government, that they should be sub
mitted to some practical and impartial control ; and that
this, to be impartial, must be compounded of a mixture
of state and federal authorities. It is not enough that
honest men are appointed judges. All know the influ
ence of interest on the mind of man, and how unconsci
ously his judgment is warped by that influence. To this
bias add that of the esprit de corps, of their peculiar
maxim and creed, that 4 it is the office of a good judge
to enlarge his jurisdiction, and the absence of responsi
bility ; and how can we expect impartial decision be
tween the general government, of which they are so
eminent a part, and an individual State, from which they
have nothing to hope or fear. We have seen too, that,
contrary to all correct example, they are in the habit of
going out of the question before them, to throw an an
chor ahead, and grapple farther hold for future advances
of power. They are then, in fact, the corps of sappers
and miners, steadily working to undermine the inde
pendent rights of the States, and to consolidate all power
in the hands of that government, in which they have so
important a freehold estate. But it is not by the conso
lidation or concentration of powers, but by their distri
bution, that good government is effected. I repeat,
he adds, that I do not charge the judges with wilful
and ill-intentioned error ; but honest error must be arrest-

352 LIFE OF

ed, when its toleration leads to public ruin. As for the
safety of society, we commit honest maniacs to Bedlam,
so judges should be withdrawn from the bench, whose
erroneous biases are leading us to dissolution. It may,
indeed, injure them in fame or in fortune; but it saves
the republic, which is the first and supreme law.

The latter part of Mr Jefferson s administration was
afflicted by a crisis in our foreign relations, which de
manded the exercise of all that fortitude and self-denial
which immortalized the introductory stages of the revo
lution, and charged the entire responsibility of the war
upon Great Britain. Unfortunately, the political ani
mosities engendered by the contests of opinion which
had distracted the nation, and the mania of commercial
cupidity and avarice engendered by a twenty-four year s
interval of peace, greatly interrupted on the present oc
casion, that spirit of cohesion between the States, which
alone carried us triumphantly through the revolution.
The enthusiasm of the spirit of 76 had in a considera
ble measure evaporated. Every description of embargo,
and every degree of commercial deprivation, which was
then too little to satisfy the rivalry of self-immolation in
the cause of country, was now too great to be endured,
though clothed with the authority of law, and intended
to avert the calamities of war.

From the renewal of hostilities between Great Britain
and France in 1803, down to the period at which the em
bargo was enacted, the commerce of the United States
was subjected to depredations by the belligerents, until it
was nearly annihilated. In the tremendous struggle for
ascendency, which animated these powerful competitors
and convulsed the European world to its centre, the laws
of nature and of nations were utterly disregarded by
both, and the injuries inflicted on our commerce by the
one, were retaliated by the other ; not on the aggressor,
but on the innocent and peaceable victim to their united
aggression.

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 353

Under the joint operation of their edicts and procla
mations, there was riot a single port in Europe, or her
dependences, to which American vessels could navigate
without heing exposed to capture and condemnation. In
this situation the president wisely recommended an em
bargo ; and in pursuance of his recommendation the
measure was adopted by Congress, on the 22d day of
December, 1807, by overwhelming majorities in both
houses.

In addition to the joint aggressions on our neutral
rights, under the sweeping paper blockades of both bel
ligerents, Great Britain was in the separate habit of dai
ly violations of our sovereignty, in the form of impress
ments. The injuries perpetually arising from this source
alone, constituted an abundant cause of war, and con
sequently of embargo. Denying the right of expatriation,
the British ministry authorized the seizure of naturalized
Americans wherever they could be found, under color of
their having been born within the British dominions.
From the abuses of this practice, sufficiently oppressive
in its rightful exercise, thousands of American citizens,
native born, as well as naturalized, w r ere subjected to the
petty despotism of naval officers, acting as judges, juries
and executioners, and doomed to slavery and death, or
to become the instruments of destruction to their own
countrymen.

Minor provocations and injuries were, in June 1807,
absorbed in the audacity of an aggression, which is with
out a parallel in the history of independent nations at
peace. By order of the British admiral, Berkley, the
ship Leopard of fifty guns fired on the United States
frigate Chesapeake, of thirty-six guns, within the waters
of the United States, in order to compel the delivery of
part of her crew claimed as British subjects. After sev
eral broadsides from the Leopard and four men killed
on board the Chesapeake, the latter struck ; was board
ed by the British ; and had four men taken from her,

354 LIFE OF

three of them native American citizens, one of whom
was hanged as a British deserter. Never since the bat
tle of Lexington had there existed such a state of univer
sal exasperation in the public mind, as was produced by
this aggression. Popular assemblies were convened in
every considerable place, at which resolutions were pas
sed expressive of indignation at the outrage.

The president forthwith issued a proclamation, inter
dicting British armed vessels from entering the waters
of the United States, and commanding all those therein
immediately to depart. In this manner peace was pro
longed, without any compromise of the national honor,
and saving the right to declare war under better auspi
ces, on failure of an amicable reparation of the injury.
By the time Congress assembled the affair of the Chesa
peake was hopefully committed to negociation, with the
additional constraint which it imposed on the British
government to settle the whole subject of impressments.
And the depredations on our neutral rights by the rival
belligerents, under their orders in council, or imperial
decrees, were put upon an equal footing, and made the
occasion of an embargo operating equally and impar
tially against both.

As a substitute for war, an embargo was the choice
of a less evil for a greater, and at the same time annoy
ed the belligerent powers more than could have been
done by open warfare. England felt it in her manufac
tures by privations of the raw material, in her maritime
interests by the loss of her naval stores, and above all in
the discontinuance of supplies essential to her colonies.
France felt it in the deprivation of all those luxuries
which she had been accustomed to receive through our
neutral commerce, and in the still more distressing de
privation of necessaries for her colonies. Our com
merce was the second in the world, our carrying trade
the very first, and had the restraint upon them been rig
idly observed, it might have inclined the European na-

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 355

tions to justice. But the popular resistance was so
great, so determined, and so daring", that it was found
impracticable to enforce obedience, without provoking
violence and insurrection. The consequence was that
the practical efficacy of the embargo, as an engine of
coercion, proved greatly disproportioned to the reasona
ble expectations of its friends.

Those engaged in foreign commerce, and in the car
rying trade, were found to prefer the hazard of seizure
and confiscation to a general embargo ; and where the
interests of any portion of the community are supposed
to be affected by a public measure, no consideration of
national advantage or dignity will ever reconcile the ag
grieved party to the smallest pecuniary sacrifice. The
opposition to the embargo was no doubt more strenuous,
from the circumstance that that portion of our citizens
who were more immediately affected by its operation,
particularly the merchants, considered themselves the
best judges relative to the expediency of any restriction
of the kind, and were inclined to look upon, the act of
the executive as arbitrary and ill-advised. So impracti
cable must it ever be found for the wisest government to
consult the general welfare of the nation, and at the same
time provide for local wants, or administer to sectional
monopoly.

Among the distinguishing ornaments of the adminis
trative policy of Mr Jefferson, none was more conspi
cuous, none more congenial to the distinctive nature of
republicanism, than his scrupulous adherence to the in
violability of freedom of speech, of the press, and of re
ligion. The utmost latitude of discussion was not only
tolerated, but invited and protected, as a fundamental
ingredient in the composition of republican government.
The celebrated traveller, Baron Humboldt, calling on
the president one day, was received into his cabinet.
On taking up one of the public journals which lay upon
the table, he was shocked to find its columns teeming

356 LIFE OP

with the most wanton abuse and .licentious calumnies
against the president. He threw it down with indigna
tion, exclaiming, Why do you not have the fellow hung
who dares to write these abominable lies ? J The presi
dent smiled at the warmth of the Baron, and replied
4 What ! hang the guardians of the public morals? No,
sir, rather would I protect the spirit of freedom which
dictates even that degree of abuse. Put that paper into
your pocket, my good friend, carry it with you to Europe,
and when you hear any one doubt the reality of Ameri
can freedom, show them that paper, and tell them where
you found it. But is it not shocking that virtuous
characters should be defamed ? replied the Baron.
Let their actions refute such libels. Believe me, con
tinued the president, virtue is not long darkened by the
clouds of calumny ; and the temporary pain which it
causes is infinitely overweighed by the safety it insures
against degeneracy in the principles and conduct of pub
lic functionaries. When a man assumes a public trust,
he should consider himself as public property. *

In pursuance of this principle, he discharged all those
who were suffering persecution for opinion s sake, under
the sedition law, immediately on coming into office. He
interposed the executive prerogative in every instance,
by ordering the prosecutions to be arrested ; or, if judg
ment and execution had passed, by remitting the fines
of the sufferers, and releasing them from imprisonment.
The grounds on which he rested his right to act in these
cases, are forcibly stated in answer to a correspondent
in Massachusetts, who questioned the constitutionality
of his interference.

But another fact is, that I "liberated a wretch who
was suffering for a libel against Mr Adams." I do not
know who was the particular wretch alluded to ; but I
discharged every person under punishment or prosecu-

* Winter in Washington.

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 357

tion under the sedition law, because I considered, and
now consider, that law to be a nullity, as absolute and
as palpable as if Congress had ordered us to fall down
and worship a golden image ; and that it was as much
my duty to arrest its execution in every stage, as it would
have been to have rescued from the fiery furnace those
who should have been cast into it for refusing to worship
the image. It was accordingly done in every instance,
without asking what the offenders had done, or against
whom they had offended, but whether the pains they
were suffering were inflicted under the pretended sedi
tion law. It was certainly possible that my motives for
contributing to the relief of Callender, and liberating
sufferers under the sedition law, might have been to pro
tect, encourage, and reward slander ; but they may also
have been those which inspire ordinary charities to ob
jects of distress, meritorious or not, or the obligation of
an oath to protect the constitution, violated by an unau
thorized act of Congress. Which of these were my mo
tives, must be decided by a regard to the general tenor
of my life. On this I am not afraid to appeal to the na
tion at large, to posterity, and still less to that Being
who sees himself our motives, who will judge us from his
own knowledge of them, and not on the testimony of
man.

On the subject of religion, it was the policy of the
president to maintain freedom of thought and speech in
all the latitude of which the human mind is susceptible,
and to discountenance by all the means in his power,
every tendency to predominance and persecution in any
sect by proscription of the least degree, even in public
opinion.

In reply to the solicitation of a very respectable cler
gyman, for the appointment of a national fast, in con
formity to the practice of his predecessors, he assigns
the reasons of his departure from their example in the,
following words.

4 1 consider the government of the United States as
interdicted by the constitution from intermeddling with
religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exer-
31

358 LIFE OF

cises. This results not only from the provision that no
law shall be made respecting the establishment or free
exercise of religion, but from that also which reserves to
the States the powers not delegated to the United States.
Certainly, no power to prescribe any religious exercise,
or to assume authority in religious discipline, has been
delegated to the general government. It must then rest
with the States, as far as it can be in any human authori
ty. But it is only proposed that I should recommend, not
prescribe, a day of fasting and prayer. That is, that I
should indirectly assume to the United States an author
ity over religious exercises, which the constitution has
directly precluded them from. It must be meant, too,
that this recommendation is to carry some authority,
and to be sanctioned by some penalty on those who dis
regard it ; not indeed of fine and imprisonment, but of
some degree of proscription, perhaps in public opinion.
And does the change in the nature of the penalty make
the recommendation less a law of conduct for those to
whom it is directed 1 I do not believe it is for the inter
est of religion to invite the civil magistrate to direct its
exercises, its discipline, or its doctrines ; nor of the re
ligious societies, that the general government should be
invested with the power of effecting any uniformity of
time or manner among them. Fasting and prayer are
religious exercises ; the enjoining them an act of disci
pline. Every religious society has a right to determine
for itself the times for these exercises, and the objects
proper for them, according to their own particular tenets ;
and this right can never be safer than in their own hands,
where the constitution has deposited it.

* I am aware that the practice of my predecessors may
be quoted. But I have ever believed, that the example
of State executives led to the assumption of that author
ity by the general government, without due examination,
which would have discovered that what might be a right
in a State government, was a violation of that right when
assumed by another. Be this as it may, every one must
act according to the dictates of his own reason, and
mine tells me that civil powers alone have been given to
the president of the United States, and no authority to
direct the religious exercises of his constituents.

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 359

With regard to the personal piety of the president, if
external observances are of any account, it is well known
that he was a constant and exemplary attendant upon
public worship ; liberal in contributions to the support of
the simple religion of Jesus ; but frowning and inflexible
on all sectarian projects. It is stated with much confi
dence by a living chronicle* of those times, whose per
sonal intimacy with the president enabled him to speak
with authority on the subject, that he contributed to
found more temples for religion and education than any
other man of that age.

The minor traits of Mr Jefferson s administration open
a range of topics, on which the historian might dwell.
His simplicity was only equalled by his economy, of
which he presented an example, in the extinguishment
of more than thirty-three millions of the public debt.
The diplomatic agents of foreign governments, on their
introduction to him, were often embarrassed, and some
times mortified, at the entire absence of etiquette with
which they were received. His arrivals at the seat of
government, and his departures therefrom, were so tim
ed and conducted as to be unobserved and unattended.
His inflexibility upon this point, so different from the
practice of his predecessors, could never be overcome ;
and he was finally permitted to pursue his own course,
undisturbed by any manifestations of popular feeling.
His uniform mode of riding was on horseback, which
was daily, and always unattended. In one of these sol
itary excursions, while passing a stream of water he was
accosted by a feeble beggar, who implored his assistance
to transport him and his baggage. He immediately
mounted the beggar behind him and carried him over ;
on perceiving he had neglected his wallet, he as good
humoredly recrossed the stream and brought it over to
him.

* S. H. Smith.

360 LIFE OF

Although repeatedly and warmly solicited by his
friends to make a tour to the North, he never could rec
oncile it to his feelings of propriety as chief magis
trate. In a private answer to Governor Sullivan of
Massachusetts, on the subject, he wrote : The course
of life which General Washington had run, civil and
military, the services he had rendered, and the space he
therefore occupied in the affections of his fellow citizens,
take from his examples the weight of precedents for
others, because no others can arrogate to themselves
the claims which he had on the public homage. To my
self, therefore, it comes as a new question, to be viewed
under all the phases it may present. I confess, that I am
not reconciled to the idea of a chief magistrate parading
himself through the several States as an object of public
gaze, and in quest of an applause, which, to be valuable,
should be purely voluntary. I had rather acquire si
lent good will by a faithful discharge of my duties, than
owe expressions of it to my putting myself in the way of
receiving them.

He carried his ideas of simplicity to such an extent as
to deprecate the size of the house allotted to the chief
magistrate. He thought it should have been turned into a
University. Nor was it from any sordidness, any insensi
bility to the charms of elegance, that his frugality, sim
plicity, and plainness proceeded ; but from a sense of his
obligations as a public man. Had it been otherwise, he
might with less propriety have deprecated the size and
magnificence of his own Monticello, which, in the vari
ous buildings and rebuildings it underwent at his hands,
to suit the progress of his taste in the arts, is believed to
have cost little less than the mansion of the chief mag
istrate. In his private expenditures, he was indeed lib
eral to a fault. Humane towards his fellow man, on a
scale of benevolence which comprehended every dis
tinction of color and condition, no practicable object of phi
lanthropy was probably ever presented to him, which he

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 361

did not encourage by bis assistance. But in the immedi
ate circle of his friends, to whom he was ever devoted,
his liberality appeared to know no limits. In the profusion
of presents which he lavished upon them, in the accom
modations of money with which he succored them un
der embarrassment, in the hospitality with which he en
tertained strangers and visitors from every country, and
in his ordinary habits of living, such evidences of a pri
vate munificence appeared, as formed a perfect contrast
with his frugality and simplicity as a public man.

One other trait of Mr Jefferson, in the discharge of
his official duties, deserves notice, to wit, his disinter
estedness. This quality is evident from the fact that
in all the splendid stations which he occupied, he accu
mulated nothing ; but retired from each of them much
poorer than he entered, and from the last and greatest
station, with hands, to use his own expression, as
clean as they were empty, indeed, on the very verge
of bankruptcy. While, in the short interval of eight
years, he had saved to his country millions and millions
of dollars, enough to make her rich and free, who was
before poor and oppressed with taxation ; he, to the im
mense fortune with which he set out in life, had added
nothing, but had lost almost every thing. If any farther
testimony were wanting on this theme, it might be drawn
from the fact of his having refrained from appointing a
single relation to office. This was not only true of him
while president, but in every public station which he fil
led. Writing to a friend in 1824, he says : * In the course
of the trusts I have exercised through life with powers
of appointment, I can say with truth, and with unspeak
able comfort, that I never did appoint a relation to office,
and that merely because I never saw the case in which
some one did not offer, or occur, better qualified. Nor,
in the multiplied removals and replacements which he
was compelled to make, did he eject a personal enemy,
or appoint a personal friend. He felt it his duty to ob

362

LIFE OP

serve these rules, for reasons expressed in answer to an
application for office by a relative : That my constitu
ents may be satisfied, that, in selecting persons for the
management of their affairs, I am influenced by neither
personal nor family interests, and especially, that the
field of public office will not be perverted by me into a
family property. On this subject, I had the benefit of
useful lessons from my predecessors, had I needed them,
marking what was to be imitated and what avoided.
But, in truth, the nature of our government is lesson
enough. Its energy depending mainly on the confidence
of the people in their chief magistrate, makes it his duty
to spare nothing which can strengthen him with that
confidence.

In the crowd of official occupations which devolve on
the executive magistrate, Mr Jefferson found time to ac
complish a succession of private labors and enterprises
which would have been enough of themselves to have
exhausted the ordinary measure of application and tal
ent. A simple enumeration of the topics on which his
leisure moments were employed, will suffice to exhibit
the extent of his efforts for the improvement and happi
ness of the nation. Regular essays abound in his cor
respondence during this period, on physics, law and
medicine ; on natural history, particularly as connect
ed with the aborgines of America ; on maxims for the
regulation and improvement of our moral conduct, ad
dressed to young men ; on agriculture, navigation, and
manufactures ; on politics and political parties, science,
history and religion. In some of those intervals when
he could justifiably abstract himself from the public af
fairs, his meditations turned upon the subject of Chris
tianity. He had some years before promised his views
of the Christian religion to Dr Rush, with whom, and
with Dr Priestley, he was in habits of intercommunica
tion on the subject. The more he reflected upon it, the
more he confessed, it expanded beyond the measure of

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 363

either his time or information. But he availed himself
of a day or two, while on the road to Monticello, in 1803,
to digest in his mind a comprehensive outline, entitled,
A Syllabus of an estimate of the merit of the doctrine
of Jesus, compared with those of others. This he af
terwards wrote out and forwarded to Dr Rush, in dis
charge of his promise, but under a strict injunction of
secrecy, to avoid the torture, as he expressed himself,
of seeing it disembowelled by the Aruspices of modern
Paganism. It embraced a comparative view of the eth
ics of Christianity with those of Judaism, and of ancient
philosophy under its most esteemed authors ; particular
ly Pithagoras, Socrates, Epicurus, Cicero, Epictetus,
Seneca, Antoninus. The result was, such a development
of the immeasurable superiority of the doctrine of Chris
tianity, that he declared its Author had presented to the
world a system of morals, which, if filled up in the style
and spirit of the rich fragments he has left us, would be
the most perfect and sublime that has ever been taught
by man. Space can only be spared for the conclusions
he arrived at, which were all on the side of Christianity.
They are the result, says he, of a life of inquiry and
reflection, and very different from that anti-christian
system imputed tome by those who know nothing of my
opinions. The question of the divinity, or inspiration
of Christ, being foreign to his purpose, did not enter in
to the estimate.

1. He [ Jesus ] corrected the deism of the Jews, con
firming them in their belief of one only God, and giving
them juster notions of his attributes and government.

2. His moral doctrines, relating to kindred and
friends, were more pure and perfect than those of the
most correct of the philosophers, and greatly more so
than those of the Jews ; and they went far beyond both in
inculcating universal philanthropy, not only to kindred
and friends, to neighbors and countrymen, but to all
mankind, gathering all into one family, under the bonds

364 LIFE OF

of love, charity, peace, common wants, and common aids.
A development of this head will evince the peculiar su
periority of the system of Jesus over all others.

3. The precepts of philosophy, and of the Hebrew
code, laid hold of actions only. He pushed his scrutinies
into the heart of man ; erected his tribunal in the region
of his thoughts, and purified the waters at the fountain
head.

4. He taught, emphatically, the doctrine of a future
state, which was either doubted or disbelieved by the
Jews ; and wielded it with efficacy, as an important in
centive, supplementary to the other motives to moral
conduct.

The president was in habits of frequent communica
tion with the fraternity of literary men spread over
Europe ; and with the various societies instituted for
benevolent or useful purposes, particularly the Agri
cultural Society of Paris, and the Board of Agricul
ture of London, of both of which he was a member. He
was indefatigable in endeavoring to obtain the useful
discoveries of these societies, as they occurred, and in
communicating to them in return, those of the western
hemisphere. He imported from France at his own ex
pense, two flocks of Merino sheep, among the first in
troduced into this country with a variety of new inven
tions in the agricultural and mechanic arts, and new
articles of culture, which have since become of general
use in the United States. He transmitted to the Society
of Paris, in return, several tierces of South Carolina rice,
for cultivation in France ; and to the Board of Agricul
ture of London, several barrels of the genuine May wheat
of Virginia. Some of these exportations happened during
the restraints of the embargo, and, on its getting into
the newspapers, excited a ridiculous uproar against the
president. His correspondence with the eminent phi
lanthropists of Europe, particularly on the subject of
vaccination, at the epoch of the first intelligence of its
discovery ; his efforts for introducing it into this country,

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 365

against the weight of scepticism and ridicule which it
encountered ; and his subsequent correspondence with
Dr Waterhouse and others, mingled with experimental
exertions for establishing and propagating its efficacy,
are among the standing monuments of his perseverance
in the general cause of humanity, while at the head of the
nation.

The plan of colonizing the free people of color, in
some place remote from the United States, originated
with Mr Jefferson, at an early period ; and on coming
into the office of president he prosecuted the enterprise
with renewed energy. A correspondence was opened
between him and Mr Monroe, then governor of Virginia ;
and the first formal proceeding on the subject was made
in the Virginia legislature, soon afterwards, to wit, about
the year 1803. The purpose of his correspondence with
Mr Monroe, is explained in a letter from him about ten
years afterwards, and published in the first annual re
port of the Colonization Society. He proposed to gain
admittance for the free people of color, into the establish
ment at Sierra Leone, which then belonged to a private
company in England ; or in failure of that, to procure a
situation in some of the Portuguese settlements in South
America. He wrote to Mr King, then our minister in
London, to apply to the Sierra Leone Company. The
application was made, but without success, on the ground
that the company w r as about to dissolve and relinquish
its possessions to the government. An attempt to nego
tiate with the Portuguese governor was equally abortive,
which suspended all active measures for a time. But
the enterprise was kept alive by Mr Jefferson, who by
his impressive admonitions of its importance, held the
legislature of Virginia firm to its purpose. The subject
was from time to time discussed in that body, till in the
year 1816 a formal resolution was passed almost unani
mously, being but a repetition of certain resolutions
which had been adopted in secret session at three dis-

366 LIFE OF

tinct antecedent periods. It was truly the feeling and
voice of Virginia, which was followed by the States of
Maryland, Tennessee and Georgia. Colonization socie
ties were then for the first time formed.*

In the catalogue of unofficial services, the improve
ments which Mr Jefferson bestowed upon the national
metropolis, are not among the least engaging. Almost
every thing that is beautiful in the artificial scenery of
Washington, is due to his taste and industry. He plant
ed its walks with trees, and strewed its gardens with
flowers. He was rarely seen returning from his daily
excursions on horseback, without bringing some branch
of tree, or shrub, or bunch of flowers, for the embellish
ment of the infant capital. He was familiar with every
tree and plant, from the oak of the forest, to the lowli
est flower of the valley. The willow-oak was among his
favorite trees ; and he was often seen standing on his
horse to gather the acorns from this trqe. He was pre
paring to raise a nursery of them, which, when large
enough to give shade, should be made to adorn the walks
of all the avenues in the city. In the mean time, he
planted them with the Lombardy poplar, being of the
most sudden growth, contented that, though he could not
enjoy their shade, his successors would. Those who
have stood on the western portico of the capitol, and
looked down the long avenue of a [mile in length to the
president s house, have been struck with the beautiful
colonnade of trees which adorns the whole distance on
either side. These were all planted under the direction
of Mr Jefferson, who often joined in the task with his
own hands. He always lamented the spirit of extermi
nation which had swept off the noble forest trees that
overspread Capitol Hill, extending down to the banks of
the Tiber, and the shores of the Potomac. He would
have converted the grounds into extensive parks and

* N. A. Review, vol. 18, p. 41.

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 367

gardens. The loss is irreparable, said he to an Euro
pean traveller, nor can the evil be prevented. When
I have seen such depredations, I have wished for a mo
ment to be a despot, that, in the possession of absolute
power, I might enforce the preservation of these valua
ble groves. Washington might have boasted one of the
noblest parks, and most beautiful malls, attached to any
city in the world.

Such are a few of the private efforts arid enterprises
which Mr Jefferson intermingled with the discharge of
his public avocations. They were performed too, witfy-
out any neglect of the sweets of social intercourse, or of
literary occupation, which ever constituted the predomi
nant passions of his soul. A regular portion of every
day was devoted to the acquisition of science ; and the
most liberal portions, to the reception of company. The
facility with which he discharged these draughts upon
his attention, amidst the complication of public and ne
cessary duties, was wont to excite the astonishment of
those who visited him. The impression produced by his
notice of a remark of a visitor, dropped in the freedom
of conversation and expressive of surprise at his being
able to transact th*e public business, amidst such numer
ous interruptions, is well remembered to this day by those
who heard it. Sir, said Mr Jefferson, I have made
it a rule, since I have been in public life, never to let the
sun rise before me, and, before I breakfasted, to trans
act all the business called for by the day. Much of the
ease with which he acquitted himself under such an ac
cumulation of engagements, is ascribable to his industry
and versatility of practical talent ; but more perhaps to
system, and a methodical arrangement of time. So
exact were his habits of order, that in a cabinet over-
burthened with papers, every one was so labelled and
arranged, as to be capable of access in a moment.

Mr Jefferson had long contemplated the approach of
the happy day, which was to relieve him from the dis-

368 LIFE OP

tressing burthen of power, and restore him to the en
joyment of his family, his books, and his farm. Soon
after the commencement of his second term, he had re
quested his fellow citizens to think of a successor for
him, to whom he declared he should deliver the public
concerns with greater joy than he received them. Mr
Madison was evidently his first choice, MrMonroe his sec
ond ; but as the public sentiment appeared at first to show
some symptoms of vacillation between them, he abstain
ed from any agency in deciding its final direction ; not
oaly from a principle of duty, but from a desire to carry
into his retirement the equal cordiality of those, whom
he fondly characterized as two principal pillars of his
happiness. His wishes were successively ratified by the
nation, in its successive choices ; and their respective
administrations, particularly that of Mr Madison, were
so conformable to his own in principle and in spirit, that
they seemed but a continuation of power in the same
hands. When a distinguished French citizen, who had
visited our country under the sway of this policy, return
ed to France, one of the first questions which Bonaparte
asked him, was, What kind of a government is that of
the United States ? It is one, Sir, he replied, which
you can neither feel nor see. The First Consul asked
no more questions ; feeling, that such a panegyric on
this government, was the severest satire on his.

The voice of the nation was strong and importunate
for a re-election of Mr Jefferson, but he rejected the al
lurement, in inflexible adherence to a principle which he
wished to become as inviolable as if incorporated into
the constitution. Not only principle, but the strongest
of inclinations dictated to him such a course. If there
was any one sentiment, next to the love of country,
which was now uppermost in the breast of Mr Jefferson,
it was that of his familiar assertion, * that he never felt
so happy as when shifting power from his own shoulders
upon those of another. The impatience with which he

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 369

anticipated the appointed epoch, and the satisfaction
with which he saluted its arrival are expressed in vari
ous letters to his friends.

1 1 have tired you, my friend, with a long letter. But
your tedium will end in a few lines more. Mine has
yet two years to endure. I am tired of an office where I
can do no more good than many others, who would be
glad to be employed in it. To myself, personally, it
brings nothing but unceasing drudgery, and daily loss
of friends. Every office becoming vacant, every ap
pointment made, me donne un ingrat, et cent ennemis.
My only consolation is in the belief, that my fellow citi
zens at large give me credit for good intentions. I will
certainly endeavor to merit the continuance of that good
will which follows well intended actions, and their ap
probation will be the dearest reward I can carry into re
tirement.

At the end of my present term, of which two years
are yet to come, I propose to retire from public life, and
to close my days on my patrimony of Monticello, in the
bosom of my family. I have hitherto enjoyed uniform
health ; but the weight of public business begins to be
too heavy for me, and I long for the enjoyment of rural
life, among my books, my farms, and my family. Hav
ing performed my quadragena stipendia, I am entitled to
my discharge, and should be sorry, indeed, that others
should be sooner sensible than myself when I ought to
ask it.

1 Within a few days I retire to my family, my books
and farms ; and having gained the harbor myself, I shall
look on my friends still buffeting the storm, with anxiety
indeed, but not with envy. Never did a prisoner, re
leased from his chains, feel such relief as I shall on sha
king off the shackles of power. Nature intended me for
the tranquil pursuits of science, by rendering them my
supreme delight. But the enormities of the times in
which I have lived, have forced me to take a part in re
sisting them, and to commit myself on the boisterous
ocean of political passions. I thank God for the oppor
tunity of retiring from them without censure, and carry-
32

370 LIFE OP

ing with me the most consoling proofs of public appro
bation. I leave every thing in the hands of men so able
to take care of them, that if we are destined to meet
misfortunes, it will be because no human wisdom could
avert them. Should you return to the United States,
perhaps your curiosity may lead you to visit the hermit
of Monticello. He will receive you with affection and
delight ; hailing you in the mean time with his affection
ate salutations, and assurances of constant esteem and
respect.

]

In the spring of 1809, Mr Jefferson made his last re
treat to the hermitage of Monticello. He retired from
a forty years possession of accumulative honors, and
from the summit of human popularity, with a mind un
shaken in its principles, with the same jealousy of pow
er, the same love of equality and abhorrence of aristoc
racy, and the same unbounded confidence in the major
ity of the people. He was sixty-six years old. At the
same age, a singular coincidence, have all the other
chief magistrates retired from office Washington, Ad
ams, Madison, Monroe except the younger Adams,
who wanted but the ordinary term of service to complete
the same number of years.

He was accompanied into retirement with the plaudits
and benedictions of his grateful countrymen. Addres
ses upon addresses, public and private, by political as
semblies, religious associations, and literary institutions,
were showered upon him, expressive of approbation of
his conduct in the administration of the government,
and containing prayers for his future tranquillity and
happiness. To the citizens of Washington who assem
bled to pay him a farewell tribute of their affection, he
replied : I receive with peculiar gratification the affec
tionate address of the citizens of Washington, and in
the patriotic sentiments it expresses, I see the true char
acter of the national metropolis. The station which we
occupy among the nations of the earth, is honorable, but

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 371

awful. Trusted with the destinies of this solitary repub
lic"^ the world, the only monument of human rights,
and the sole depository of the sacred fire of freedom and
self government, from hence it is to be lighted up in oth
er regions of the earth, if other regions of the earth shall
ever become susceptible of its genial influence. All
mankind ought, then, with us, to rejoice in its prosper
ous, and sympathize in its adverse fortunes, as involving
every thing dear to man. And to what sacrifices of in
terest, or convenience, ought not these considerations to
animate us ! To what compromises of opinion and in
clination, to maintain harmony and union among our
selves, and to preserve from all danger this hallowed
ark of human hope and happiness ! That differences of
opinion should arise among men, on politics, on religion,
and on every other topic of human enquiry, and that
these should be freely expressed in a country where all
our faculties are free, is to be expected. But these val
uable privileges are much perverted when permitted to
disturb the harmony of social intercourse, and to lessen
the tolerance of opinion. To the honor of society here
it has been characterized by a just and generous liberal
ity ; and an indulgence of those affections, which, with
out regard to political creeds, constitute the happiness
of life.

The inhabitants of his native county, Albemarle, were
eager for the occasion to testify those emotions of grati
tude and affection, which they felt for their illustrious
neighbor and friend ; and to welcome him to those
sweets of retirement for which he had so often sighed.
With this view, they formed the determination at a pub
lic meeting to receive him in a body at the extremity of
the county, and conduct him home. Fearful, however,
lest the zeal of friendship might inflict a wound on his
characteristic modesty, they previously submitted to him
their intention. In reply, he expressed his wish, that
* his neighbors would not take so much trouble on his

372 LIFE OF

account. The idea was accordingly relinquished. But
at a subsequent meeting of the inhabitants of the county,
an address was unanimously adopted, and ordered to be
presented to him, in which they added to the general
gratulations of the nation, their particular sensations
of respect, in the most affecting terms. As individu
als, it concluded, among whom you were raised, and
to whom you have at all times been dear, we again wel
come your return to your native county, to the bosom of
your family, and to the affections of those neighbors who
have long known, and have long revered you in private
life. We assure you, sir, we are not insensible to the
many sacrifices you have already made, to the various
stations which have been assigned you by your country ;
we have witnessed your disinterestedness, and while we
feel the benefits of your past services, it would be more
than ingratitude in us, did we not use our best efforts to
make your latter days as tranquil and as happy, as your
former have been bright and glorious.

To this address Mr Jefferson returned the following
answer.

Returning to the scenes of my birth and early life,
to the society of those with whom I was raised, and who
have been ever dear to me, I receive, fellow citizens
and neighbors, with inexpressible pleasure, the cordial
welcome you are so good as to give me. Long absent
on -duties which the history of a wonderful era made in
cumbent on those called to them, the pomp, the turmoil,
the bustle, and splendor of office, have drawn but deeper
sighs for the tranquil and irresponsible occupations of
private life, for the enjoyment of an affectionate inter
course with you, my neighbors and friends, and the en
dearments of family love, which nature has given us all,
as the sweetener of every hour. For these I gladly lay
down the distressing burthen of power, and seek, with
my fellow citizens, repose and safety under the watchful
cares, the labors, and perplexities of younger and abler
minds. The anxieties you express to administer to my
happiness, do, of themselves, confer that happiness ; arid

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 373

the measure will be complete, if my endeavors to fulfil
my duties in the several public stations to which I have
been called, have obtained for me the approbation of my
country. The part which I have acted on the theatre of
public life, has been before them ; and to their sentence I
submit it : but the testimony of my native county, of the
individuals who have known me in private life, to my
conduct in its various duties and relations, is the more
grateful, as proceeding from eye witnesses and observ
ers, from triers of the vicinage. Of you, then, my neigh
bors, I may ask, in the face of the world, Whose ox
have I taken, or whom have I defrauded ? Whom have
I oppressed, or of whose hand have I received a bribe
to blind mine eyes therewith T On your verdict I rest
with conscious security. Your wishes for my happiness
are received with just sensibility, and I offer sincere
prayers for your own welfare and prosperity.

Among the numerous testimonials of the public grati
tude elicited on this occasion, the valedictory address
of the general assembly of Virginia is deservedly the
most distinguished. It is too rich a document intrinsically,
and too proudly associated with the reputation of him
whose merits it was intended to commemorate, not to be
preserved. It was agreed to by both houses on the 7th
of February, 1809.

Sir, The general assembly of your native State
cannot close their session, without acknowledging your
services in the office which you are just about to lay
down, and bidding you a respectful and affectionate
farewell.

We have to thank you for the model of an adminis
tration conducted on the purest principles of republican
ism ; for pomp and state laid aside ; patronage discard
ed ; internal taxes abolished ; a host of superfluous offi
cers disbanded ; the monarchic maxim that a national
debt is a national blessing, renounced, and more than
thirty-three millions of our debt discharged; the native
right to nearly one hundred millions of acres of our na
tional domain extinguished ; and without the guilt or ca
lamities of conquest, a vast and fertile region added to
32*

374 LIFE OF

our country, far more extensive than her original pos
sessions, bringing along with it the Mississippi and the
port of Orleans, the trade of the West to the Pacific
ocean, and in the intrinsic value of the land itself, a
source of permanent and almost inexhaustible revenue.
These are points in your administration which the his
torian will not fail to seize, to expand, and teach pos
terity to dwell upon with delight. Nor will he forget
our peace with the civilized world, preserved through a
season of uncommon difficulty and trial ; the good will
cultivated with the unfortunate aborigines of our coun
try, and the civilization humanely extended among them;
the lesson taught the inhabitants of the coast of Barbary,
that we have the means of chastising their piratical en
croachments, and awing them into justice ; and that
theme, on which, above all others, the historic genius
will hang with rapture, the liberty of speech and of the
press, preserved inviolate, without which genius and
science are given to man in vain.

In the principles on which you have administered the
government, we see only the continuation and maturity
of the same virtues and abilities, which drew upon you
in your youth the resentment of Dunmore. From the
first brilliant and happy moment of your resistance to
foreign tyranny, until the present day, we mark with
pleasure and with gratitude the same uniform, consistent
character, the same warm and devoted attachment to
liberty and the republic, the same Roman Jove of your
country, her rights, her peace, her honor, her pros
perity.

* How blessed will be the retirement into which you
are about to go ! How deservedly blessed will it be ! For
you carry with you the richest of all rewards, the recol
lection of a life well spent in the service of your coun
try, and proofs the most decisive, of the love, the grati
tude, the veneration of your countrymen.

4 That your retirement may be as happy as your life
has been virtuous and useful ; that our youth may see,
in the blissful close of your days, an additional induce
ment to form themselves on your model, is the devout
and earnest prayer of your fellow-citizens who compose
the general assembly of Virginia.

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 375

Thus terminated the political career of one who had
been a principal agent of two revolutions, and an eye
witness of a third ; of one who, from his entrance into
manhood, had continued the advocate of principles,
which, first discarded, next endured, then embraced, had
eventually swayed the destinies of his country through
the perilous and successive convulsions of transforma
tion from a monarchical to a free structure of govern
ment, and of deliverance from the fatal catastrophe of a
counter-revolution, in the last extremities of exhaustion,
despair, and self-abandonment ; who had lived to see
the energies of those principles so extensively transfused
into the very sycophants of the tyrants of the old world,
temporal and spiritual, as that the earth was every where
shaking under their feet ; and who, at last, enjoyed the
satisfaction of seeing his name become the synonym of
political orthodoxy at home, and the watch-word of the
aspirants for its attainment, in all parts of the civilized
world.

1 Bright are the memories link d with thee,

BOAST of a glory-hallowed land,

HOPE of the valiant and the free.

Thus had he performed his -distinguished course, and
thus, full of years and covered with glory, he was ready
as to all political affairs, to utter his favorite invocation :
Nunc dimittas, Domine Lord, now lettest thou thy
servant depart in peace.

376 LIFE OF

CHAPTER XIV.

IN repairing with so much eagerness to the shades of
his native mountains, it seems not to have entered the
mind of Mr Jefferson to relax his efforts for the benefit
of mankind, but to divert them into another channel.
His whole life, he was in the habit of remarking, had
been at war with his natural taste, feelings and wishes.
Circumstances had led him along, step by step, the path
he had trodden.

His was not the retirement of one who sought refuge
from the pangs of disappointed ambition, and the world s
mockery of them, in the resource of oblivion and stoical
insensibility ; or who coveted repose from the turbulence
of the scene, to indulge in indolence. No. his was the
voluntary seclusion of one, who, as it has been beauti
fully said, * had well filled a noble part in public life,
from which he was prepared and anxious to withdraw ;
who sought retirement to gratify warm affections, and to
enjoy his well earned fame ; who desired to turn those
thoughts which had been necessarily restrained and
limited, to the investigation of all the sources of human
happiness and enjoyment; who felt himself surrounded,
in his fellow citizens, by a circle of affectionate friends,
and had not to attribute to a rude expulsion from the
theatre of ambition, his sincere devotion to the pursuits
of agriculture and philosophy ; and who, receiving to the
last moment of his existence continued proofs of admi
ration and regard, which penetrated his remote retire
ment, devoted the remainder of his days to record those

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 377

various reflections for which the materials had been col
lected and treasured up, unknown to himself, on the long
and various voyage of his life.

In the possession of undecayed intellectual powers,
and a physical strength unsubdued by the labors which
* the history of a wonderful era had made incumbent on
him, he devoted the remnant of his days to unlocking all
the store-houses of knowledge, and dispensing their treas
ures to the generation who had succeeded him on the
theatre of public affairs ; and to laying the foundations
for the still greater extension of science by the estab
lishment of a seminary of learning which sheuld rival
the institutions of Cambridge and Oxford.

To give a few choice selections from his cabinet, de
veloping the OPINIONS of the Monticellian philosopher,
on questions interesting and important to mankind, and
which have not yet been brought into special review;
his observations on the distinguished characters with
whom he acted or came in contact, in the course of his
career; on the parties and political occurrences of the
passing day ; his daily occupations and habits of living
all expressed in the freedom of private and unrestrain
ed confidence, seems the most satisfactory method of
supplying that portion of his history, for which the ma
terials are of too abstract a nature to be adapted to his
torical narrative. The quotations must be necessarily
limited, but possess great interest and value.

THE CONSTITUTION POPULAR RIGHTS. Some men
look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and
deem them like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to
be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding
age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what they
did to be beyond amendment. I knew that age well ;
I belonged to it, and labored with it. It deserved well
of its country. It was very like the present, but without
the experience of the present ; and forty years of ex
perience in government is worth a century of book read
ing : and this they would say themselves were they to

378

LIFE OP

rise from the dead. We had not yet penetrated to the
mother principle, that governments are republican only
in proportion as they embody the will of their people,
and execute it. Hence, our first constitutions had really
no leading principle in them. Though we may say with
confidence, that the worst of the American constitutions
is better than the best which ever existed before in
any other country, and they are wonderfully perfect for
a first essay, yet every human essay must have defects.
It will remain therefore to those now coming on the
stage of public affairs to perfect what has been so well
begun by those going off it. I am certainly not an ad
vocate for frequent and untried changes in laws and con
stitutions. I think moderate imperfections had better be
borne with ; because, when once known, we accommo
date ourselves to them, and find practical means of cor
recting their ill effects. But I know, also, that laws and
institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of
the human mind. As that becomes more developed,
more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new
truths disclosed, and manners and opinions change with
the change of circumstances, institutions must advance
also, and keep pace with the times. We might as well
require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him
when a boy, as civilized society to remain ever under the
regimen of their barbarous ancestors. It is this prepos
terous idea which has lately deluged Europe in blood.
Their monarchs, instead of wisely yielding to the gradual
changes of circumstances, of favoring progressive ac
commodation to progressive improvement, have clung to
old abuses, entrenched themselves behind steady habits,
and obliged their subjects to seek through blood and vio
lence, rash and ruinous innovations, which, had they been
referred to the peaceful deliberations and collected wis
dom of the nation, would have been put into acceptable
and salutary forms. Let us follow no such examples,
nor weakly believe that one generation is not as capable
as another of taking care of itself, and of ordering its
own affairs. Let us avail ourselves of our reason and
experience, to correct the crude essays of our first and
unexperienced, although wise, virtuous, and well mean
ing councils. And, lastly, let us provide in our constitu-

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 379

tion for its revision at stated periods. What these pe
riods should be, nature herself indicates. By the Euro
pean tables of mortality, of the adults living at any one
moment of time, a majority will be dead in about nine
teen years. At the end of that period, then, a new ma
jority is come into place ; or, in other words, a new
generation. Each generation is as independent of the
one preceding, as that was of all which had gone before.
It has, then, like them, a right to choose for itself the
form of government it believes most promotive of its
own happiness ; consequently, to accommodate to the
circumstances in which it finds itself, that received from
its predecessors : and it is for the peace and good of
mankind, that a solemn opportunity of doing this every
nineteen or twenty years, should be provided by the con
stitution ; so that it may be handed on, with periodical
repairs, from generation to generation, to the end of
time, if any thing human can so long endure. It is now
forty years since the constitution of Virginia was form
ed. The same tables inform us, that, within that period,
two thirds of the adults then living are now dead. Have
then the remaining third, even if they had the wish, the
right to hold in obedience to their will, and to laws here
tofore made by them, the other two thirds, who, with
themselves, compose the present mass of adults ? If they
have not, who has ? The dead 1 But the dead have no
rights. They are nothing ; and nothing cannot own
something. Where there is no substance, there can be
no accident. This corporeal globe and every thing upon
it, belong to its present corporeal inhabitants, during their
generation. They alone have aright to direct what is the
concern of themselves alone, and to declare the law of
that direction : and this declaration can only be made
by their majority. That majority, then, has a right to
depute representatives to a convention, and to make the
constitution what they think will be best for themselves.
* * If this avenue be shut to the call of sufferance, it
will make itself heard through that of force, and we shall
go on, as other nations are doing, in the endless circle
of oppression, rebellion, reformation ; and oppression,
rebellion, reformation, again ; and so on, for ever.

380 LIFE OP

RELATIVE POWERS OP THE GENERAL AND STATE GOV
ERNMENTS. With respect to our State and federal
governments, I do not think their relations correctly un
derstood by foreigners. They generally suppose the
former subordinate to the latter. But this is not the
case. They are co-ordinate departments of one simple
and integral whole. To the State governments are re
served all legislation and administration, in affairs which
concern their own citizens only, and to the federal
government is given whatever concerns foreigners, or
the citizens of other States ; these functions alone being
made federal. The one is the domestic, the other the
foreign branch of the same government ; neither having
control over the other, but within its own department.
There are one or two exceptions only to this partition
of power. But you may ask, if the two departments
should claim each the same subject of power, where is
the common umpire to decide ultimately between them ?
In cases of little importance or urgency, the prudence of
both parties will keep them aloof from the questionable
ground : but if it can neither be avoided nor compromis
ed, a convention of the States must be called, to ascribe
the doubtful power to that department which they may
think best.

RELATIVE POWERS OF EACH BRANCH IN THE GENERAL
GOVERNMENT. You seem to think it devolved on the
judges to decide on the validity of the sedition law. But
nothing in the constitution has given them a right to de
cide for the executive, more than to the executive to de
cide for them. Both magistracies are equally independ
ent in the sphere of action assigned to them. The judges,
believing the law constitutional, had a right to pass a
sentence of fine and imprisonment ; because the power
was placed in their hands by the constitution. But the
executive, believing the law to be unconstitutional, were
bound to remit the execution of it ; because that power
has been confided to them by the constitution. That in
strument meant that its co-ordinate branches should be
checks on each other. But the opinion which gives to
the judges the right to decide what laws are constitu
tional, and what not, not only for themselves in their
own sphere of action, but for the legislature and execu-

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 381

live also in their spheres, would make the judiciary a
despotic branch.

* If this opinion be sound, then indeed is our constitu
tion a complete felo de se. For intending to establish
three departments, co-ordinate and independent, that
they might check and balance one another, it has given,
according to this opinion, to one of them alone, the right
to prescribe rules for the government of the others, and
to that one too, which is unelected by, and independent
of the nation. For experience has already shown that
the impeachment it has provided is not even a scare
crow ; that such opinions as the one you combat, sent
cautiously out, as you observe also, by detachment, not
belonging to the case often, but sought for out of it, as
if to rally the public opinion beforehand to their views,
and to indicate the line they are to walk in, have been
so quietly passed over as never to have excited animad
version, even in a speech of any one of the body entrust
ed with impeachment. The constitution, on this hypo
thesis, is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judi
ciary, which they may twist and shape into any form
they please. It should be remembered, as an axiom of
eternal truth in politics, that whatever power in any gov
ernment is independent, is absolute also ; in theory on
ly, at first, while the spirit of the people is up, but in
practice, as fast as that relaxes. Independence can be
trusted no where but with the people in mass. They
are inherently independent of all but moral law.

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT, CONSTRUCTIVE INTERPRETA
TIONS, &c. You will have learned that an act for in
ternal improvement, after passing both houses, was neg
atived by the president [1817.] The act was founded,
avowedly, on the principle that the phrase in the consti
tution, which authorises.Congress to levy taxes, to pay
the debts, and provide for the general welfare, was an
extension of the powers specifically enumerated to what
ever would promote the general welfare ; and this, you
know, was the federal doctrine. Whereas, our tenet
ever was, and, indeed, it is almost the only land-mark
which now divides the federalists from the republicans,
that Congress had not unlimited powers to provide for
the general welfare, but were restrained to those specifi-
33

382

LIFE OP

cally enumerated ; and that, as it was never meant they
should provide for that welfare but by the exercise of the
enumerated powers, so it could not have been meant
they should raise money for purposes which the enumer
ation did not place under their action : consequently,
that the specification of powers is a limitation of the
purposes for which they may raise money. I think the
passage and rejection of this bill a fortunate incident.
Every State will certainly concede the power ; and this
will be a national confirmation of the grounds of appeal
to them, and will settle for ever the meaning of this
phrase, which, by a mere grammatical quibble, has
countenanced the general government in a claim of uni
versal power. 7

DOMESTIC MANUFACTURES. I have now thirty five
spindles a going, a hand carding-machine, and looms
with the flying shuttle, for the supply of my own farms,
which will never be relinquished in my time. The con
tinuance of the war will fix the habit generally, and out of
the evils of impressment and of the orders of council, a
great blessing for us will grow. I have not formerly
been an advocate for great manufactories. I doubted
whether our labor, employed in agriculture, and aided
by the spontaneous energies of the earth, would not pro
cure us more than we could make ourselves of other ne
cessaries. But other considerations entering into the
question, have settled my doubts.

You tell me I am quoted by those who wish to con
tinue our dependance on England for our manufactures.
There was a time when I might have been so quoted
with more candor. But within the thirty years which
have since elapsed, how are circumstances changed !
We were then in peace ; our independent place among
nations was acknowledged. A commerce which offered
the raw material, in exchange for the same material af
ter receiving the last touch of industry, was worthy of
welcome to all nations. It was expected, that those es
pecially to whom manufacturing industry was impor
tant, would cherish the friendship of such customers by
every favor, and particularly cultivate their peace by
every act of justice and friendship. Under this prospect,

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 383

the question seemed legitimate, whether, with such an
immensity of unimproved land, courting the hand of
husbandry, the industry of agriculture, or that of manu
factures, would add most to the national wealth. And the
doubt on the utility of the American manufactures was en
tertained on this consideration, chiefly, that to the labor
of the husbandman, a vast addition is made by the spon
taneous energies of the earth on which it is employed.
For one grain o/ wheat committed to the earth, she ren
ders twenty, thirty, and even fifty fold ; whereas to the
labor of the manufacturer nothing is added. Pounds of
flax, in his hands, on the contrary, yield but penny
weights of lace. This exchange, too, laborious as it
might^seem, what a field did it promise for the occupation
of the ocean ; what a nursery for that class of citizens
who were to exercise and maintain our equal rights on
that element ! This was the state of things in 1785,
when the Notes on Virginia were first published ; when,
the ocean being open to all nations, and their common
right in it acknowledged and exercised under regula
tions sanctioned by the assent and usage of all, it was
thought that the doubt might claim some consideration.
We have since experienced, what we did not then be
lieve, that there exist both profligacy and power enough
to exclude us from the field of interchange with other
nations. That to be independent for the comforts of
life, we must fabricate them ourselves. We must now
place the manufacturer by the side of the agriculturist.
The former question is suppressed, or rather assumes a
new form. The grand inquiry now is, Shall we make
our own comforts, or go without them at the will of a
foreign nation 1 He, therefore, who is now against do
mestic manufacture, must be for reducing us either to
depen dance on that foreign nation, or to be clothed in
skins, and to live like wild beasts in dens and caverns.
I am not one of these. Experience has taught me that
manufactures are now as necessary to our independence
as to our comfort,

LABORING CLASSES, AGRICULTURE. These circum
stances have long since produced an overcharge in the
class of competitors for learned occupation, and great
distress among the supernumerary candidates ; and the

384 LIFE OF

more, as their habits of life have disqualified them for
re-entering- into the laborious class. The evil cannot be
suddenly, nor perhaps ever entirely cured : nor should I
presume to say by what means it may be cured. Doubt
less there are many engines which the nation might bring
to bear on this object. Public opinion and public encour
agement are among these. The class principally defec
tive is that of agriculture. It is the first in utility, and
ought to be the first in respect. The same artificial
means which have been used to produce a competition
in learning, may be equally successful in restoring agri
culture to its primary dignity in the eyes of men. It is
a science of the very first order. It counts among its
handmaids the most respectable sciences, such as che
mistry, natural philosophy, mechanics, mathematics gen
erally, natural history, botany. In every college and
university, a professorship of agriculture, and the class
of its students, might be honored as the first. Young
men closing their academical education with this, as the
crown of all other sciences, fascinated with its solid
charms, and at a time when they are to choose an occu
pation, instead of crowding the other classes, would re
turn to the farms of their fathers, their own, or those of
others, and replenish and invigorate a calling, now lan
guishing under contempt and oppression. The charita
ble schools, instead of storing their pupils with a lore
which the present slate of society does not call for, con
verted into schools of agriculture, might restore them to
that branch, qualified to enrich and honor themselves,
and to increase the productions of the nation instead of
consuming them. A gradual abolition of the useless
offices, so much accumulated in all governments, might
close this drain also from the labors of the field, and
lessen the burthens imposed on them. By these, and the
better means which will occur to others, the surcharge
of the learned, .might in time be drawn off to recruit the
laboring class of citizens, the sum of industry be in
creased, and that of misery diminished.

NATIONAL BANK. From a passage in the letter of
tlie president, I observe an idea of establishing a branch
bank of the United States in New Orleans. This insti
tution is one of the most deadly hostility existing, against

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 385

the principles and form of our constitution. The nation
is, at this time, so strong and united in its sentiments,
that it cannot be shaken at this moment. But suppose a
series of untoward events should occur, sufficient to bring
into doubt the competency of a republican government
to meet a crisis of great danger, or to unhinge the con
fidence of the people in the public functionaries ; an
institution like this, penetrating by its branches every
part of the union, acting by command and in phalanx,
may, in a critical moment, upset the government. I
deem no government safe which is under the vassalage
of any self-constituted authorities, or any other autho
rity than that of the nation, or its regular functionaries.
What an obstruction could not this bank of the United
States, with all its branch banks, be in time of war 1 It
might dictate to us the peace we should accept, or with
draw its aids. Ought we then to give farther growth to
an institution so powerful, so hostile? That it is so
hostile we know, 1. from a knowledge of the principles
of the persons composing the body of directors in every
bank, principal or branch ; and those of most of the
stock-holders; 2. from their opposition to the measures
and principles of the government, and to tjie election of
those friendly to them : and, 3. from the sentiments of
the newspapers they support. Now, while we are strong,
it is the greatest duty we owe to the safety of our consti
tution, to bring this powerful enemy to a perfect subor
dination under its authorities. The first measure would
be to reduce them to an equal footing only with other
banks, as to the favors of the government. But, in order
to be able to meet a general combination of the banks
against us, in a critical emergency, could we not make
a beginning towards an independent use of our own
money, towards holding our own bank in all the deposits
where it is received, and letting the Treasurer give his
draft or note for payment at any particular place, which,
in a well conducted government, ought to have as much
credit as any private draft, or bank note, or bill, and
would give us the same facilities which we derive from
the banks 1 I pray you to turn this subject in your
mind, and give it the benefit of your knowledge of de-
33*

386 LIFE OF

tails ; whereas, I have only very general views of the
subject? 7

POLITICAL PARTIES. C I know too well the weakness
and uncertainty of human reason, to wonder at its dif
ferent results. Both of our political parties, at least the
honest part of them, agree conscientiously in the same
object, the public good : but they differ essentially in
what they deem the means of promoting that good.
One side believes it best done by one composition of the
governing powers ; the other, by a different one. One
fears most the ignorance of the people; the other, the
selfishness of rulers independent of them. Which is
right, time and experience will prove. We think that
one side of this experiment has been long enough tried,
and proved not to promote the good of the many : and
that the other has not been fairly and sufficiently tried.
Our opponents think the reverse. With whichever opi
nion the body of the nation concurs, that must prevail.
My anxieties on this subject will never carry me beyond
the use of fair and honorable means of truth and reason;
nor have they ever lessened my esteem for moral worth,
nor alienated my affections from a single friend, who did
not first withdraw himself. Wherever this has happened,
I confess I have not been insensible to it : yet have ever
kept myself open to a return of their justice.

1 The fact is, that at the formation of our government,
many had formed their political opinions on European
writings and practices, believing the experience of old
countries, and especially of England, abusive as it was,
to be a safer guide than mere theory. The doctrines of
Europe were, that men in numerous associations cannot
be restrained within the limits of order and justice, but
by forces physical and moral, wielded over them by
authorities independent of their will. Hence their or
ganization of kings, hereditary nobles, and priests. Still
farther to constrain the brute force of the people, they
deem it necessary to keep them down by hard labor,
poverty, and ignorance, and to take from them, as from
bees, so much of their earnings, as that unremitting labor
shall be necessary to obtain a sufficient surplus barely to
sustain a scanty and miserable life. And these earnings
they apply to maintain their privileged orders in splen-

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 387

dor and idleness, to fascinate the eyes of the people, and
excite in them a humble adoration and submission, as
to an order of superior beings.

SOVEREIGNS OF EUROPE. When I observed, how
ever, that the king of England was a cipher, I did not
mean to confine the observation to the mere individual
now on that throne. The practice of kings marrying
only into the families of kings, has been that of Europe
for some centuries. Now, take any race of animals, con
fine them in idleness and inaction, whether in a sty, a
stable, or a state-room, pamper them with high diet,
gratify all their sexual appetites, immerse them in sen
sualities, nourish their passions, let every thing bend
before them, and banish whatever might lead them to
think, and in a few generations they become all body,
and no mind : and this, too, by a law of nature, by that
very law by which we are in the constant practice of
changing the characters and propensities of the animals
we raise for our own purposes. Such is the regimen in
raising kings, and in this way they have gone on for cen
turies. While in Europe, I often amused myself with
contemplating the characters of the then reigning sove
reigns of Europe. Louis the XVI was a fool, of my
own knowledge, and in despite of the answers made for
him at his trial. The king of Spain was a fool, and of
Naples the same. They passed their lives in hunting,
and dispatched two couriers a week, one thousand miles,
to let each other know what game they had killed the
preceding days. The king of Sardinia was a fool. All
these were Bourbons. The Queen of Portugal, a Bra-
ganza, was an idiot by nature. And so was the king of
Denmark. Their sons, as regents, exercised the powers
of government. The king of Prussia, successor to the
great Frederick, was a mere hog in body as well as in
mind. Gustavus of Sweden, and Joseph of Austria,
were really crazy, and George of England you know
was in a straight waistcoat. There remained, then, none
but old Catherine, who had been too lately picked up to
have lost her common sense. In this state Bonaparte
found Europe ; and it was this state of its rulers which
lost it with scarce a struggle. These animals had be
come without mind and powerless ; and so will every

388

LIFE OP

hereditary monarch be after a few generations. Alex
ander, the grandson of Catherine, is as yet an exception.
He is able to hold his own. But he is only of the third
generation. His race is not yet worn out? And so
endeth the book of kings, from all of whom the Lord
deliver us, and have you, my friend, and all such good
men and true, in his holy keeping.

PORTRAITURE OF WASHINGTON. You say that in
taking General Washington on your shoulders, to bear
him harmless through the federal coalition, you encounter
a perilous topic. I do not think so. You have given
the genuine history of the course of his mind through
the trying scenes in which it was engaged, and of the
seductions by which it was deceived, but not depraved.
I think I knew General Washington intimately and
thoroughly ; and were I called on to delineate his char
acter, it should be in terms like these.

* His mind was great and powerful, without being of
the very first order ; his penetration strong, though not
so acute as that of a Newton, Bacon, or Locke ; and as
far as he saw, no judgment was ever sounder. It was
slow in operation, being little aided by invention or
imagination, but sure in conclusion. Hence the com
mon remark of his officers, of the advantage he derived
from councils of war, where, hearing all suggestions, he
selected whatever was best ; and certainly no general
ever planned his battles more judiciously. But if de
ranged during the course of the action, if any member
of his plan was dislocated by sudden circumstances, he
was slow in a re-adjustment. The consequence was,
that he often failed in the field, and rarely against an
enemy in station, as at Boston and York. He was inca
pable of fear, meeting personal dangers with the calmest
unconcern. Perhaps the strongest feature in his charac
ter was prudence, never acting until every circumstance,
every consideration, was maturely weighed ; refraining
if he saw a doubt, but, when once decided, going through
with his purpose, whatever obstacles opposed. His in
tegrity was most pure, his justice the most inflexible I
have ever known, no motives of interest or consanguinity,
of friendship or hatred, being able to bias his decision.
He was, indeed, in every sense of the words, a wise, a

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 389

good, and a great man. His temper was naturally irri
table and high-toned ; but reflection and resolution had
obtained a firm and habitual ascendancy over it. If ever,
however, it broke its bonds, he was most tremendous in
his wrath. In his expenses he was honorable, but exact;
liberal in contributions to whatever promised utility ; but
frowning and unyielding on all visionary projects, and
all unworthy calls on his charity. His heart was not
warm in its affections ; but he exactly calculated every
man s value, and gave him a solid esteem proportioned
to it. His person, you know, was fine, his stature exactly
what one would wish ; his deportment easy, erect, and
noble ; the best horseman of his age, and the most grace
ful figure that could be seen on horseback. Although in
the circle of his friends, where he might be unreserved
with safety, he took a free share in conversation, his col
loquial talents were not above mediocrity, possessing
neither copiousness of ideas, nor fluency of words. In
public, when called on for a sudden opinion, he was un
ready, short, and embarrassed. Yet he wrote readily,
rather diffusely, in an easy and correct style. This he
had acquired by conversation with the world, for his
education was merely reading, writing, and common
arithmetic, to which he added surveying at a later day.
His time was employed in action chiefly, reading little,
and that only in agriculture and English history. His
correspondence became necessarily extensive, and, with
journalizing his agricultural proceedings, occupied most
of his leisure hours within doors. On the whole, his
character was, in its mfiss, perfect; in nothing bad, in
few points indifferent; and it may truly be said> that
never did nature and fortune combine more perfectly to
make a man great, and to place him in the same constel
lation with w hatever worthies have merited from man an
everlasting remembrance. For his was the singular des
tiny and merit, of leading the armies of his country suc
cessfully through an arduous war, for the establishment
of its independence ; of conducting its councils through
the birth of a government, new in its forms and princi
ples, until it had settled down into a quiet and orderly
train ; and of scrupulously obeying the laws through
the whole of his career, civil and military, of which the
history of the world furnishes no other example.

890 LIFE .OF

RELIGIOUS. The result of your fifty or sixty years
of religious reading in the four words, " Be just and
good," is that in which all our inquiries must end ; as the
riddles of all the priesthoods end in four more, " Ubipa-
nis, ibi deus." What all agree in, is probably right, what
no two agree in, most probably wrong. One of our fan-
coloring biographers, who paints small men as very great,
inquired of me lately, with real affection too, whether he
might consider as authentic, the change in my religion
much spoken of in some circles. Now this supposed
that they knew what had been my religion before, tak
ing for it the word of their priests, whom I certainly
never made the confidants of my creed. My answer
was, " Say nothing of my religion. It is known to my
God and myself alone. Its evidence before the world is
to be sought in my life; if that has been honest and du
tiful to society, the religion which has regulated it cannot
be a bad one."

ON THE LOSS OF FRIENDS. When you and I look
back on the country over which we have passed, what a
field of slaughter does it exhibit. Where are all the
friends who entered it with us, under all the inspiring
energies of health and hope?. As if pursued by the
havoc of war, they are strewed by the way, some earlier,
some later, and scarce a few stragglers remain to count
the numbers fallen, and to mark yet, by their own fall,
the last footsteps of their party. Is it a desirable thing
to bear up through the heat of the action to witness the
death of all our companions, and merely be the last vic
tim 1 I doubt it. We have, however, the traveller s
consolation. Every step shortens the distance we have
to go ; the end of our journey is in sight, the bed where
in we are to rest, and to rise in the midst of the friends
we have lost. " W r e sorrow not, then, as others who have
no hope ;" but look forward to the day which " joins us
to the great majority." But whatever is to be our des
tiny, wisdom, as well as duty, dictates that we should
acquiesce in the will of Him whose it is to give arid take
away, and be contented in the enjoyment of those who
are still permitted to be with us. Of those connected by
blood, the number does not depend on us. But friends
we have, if we have merited them. Those of our earli-

THOMAS JEFFERSON.

391

est years stand nearest in our affections. But in this too,
you and I have been unlucky. Of our college friends
(and they are the dearest) how few have stood with us
in the great political questions which have agitated our
country ; and these were of a nature to justify agitation.
I did not believe the Lilliputian fetters of that day strong
enough to have bound so many.

ADVICE ON THE STUDIES OF YOUNG MEN. Moral phl-

losophy. I think it lost time to attend lectures cfn this
branch. He who made us would have been a pitiful
bungler, if he had made the rules of our moral conduct a
matter of science. For one man of science, there are
thousands who are not. What would have become of
them 1 Man was destined for society. His morality
therefore, was to be formed to this object. He was en
dowed with a sense of right and wrong, merely relative
to this. This sense is as much a part of his nature, as
the sense of hearing, seeing, feeling ; it is the true foun
dation of morality, and not the to kalon, truth, &c, as
fanciful writers have imagined. The moral sense, or
conscience, is as much a part of man, as his leg or arm.
It is given to all human beings, in a stronger or weaker
degree, as force of members is given them in a greater
or less degree. It may be strengthened by exercise, as
may any particular limb of the body. This sense is sub
mitted, indeed, in some degree, to the guidance of rea
son ; but it is a small stock which is required for this ;
even a less one than what we call common sense. State
a moral case fc> a ploughman, and to a professor. The
former will decide it as well, and often better than the
latter, because he has not been led astray by artificial
rules. In this branch, therefore, read good books, be
cause they will encourage, as well as direct your feelings.
Read the books mentioned in the enclosed paper : and,
above all things, lose no occasion of exercising your dis
positions to be grateful, to be generous, to be charitable,
to be humane, to be true, just, firm, orderly, courageous,
<fcc. Consider every act of this kind, as an exercise
which will strengthen your moral faculties, and increase
your worth.

TRAVELLING. This makes men wiser, but less happy.

392 LIFE OF

When men of sober age travel, they gather knowledge,
which they may apply usefully for their country ; but
they are subject ever after to recollections mixed with
regret ; their affections are weakened by being extended
over more objects ; and they learn new habits, which
cannot be gratified when they return borne. Young
men who travel are exposed to all these inconveniences .
in a higher degree, to others still more serious, and do
not acquire that wisdom for which a previous foundation
is requisite, by repeated and just observations at home.
The glare of pomp and pleasure is analogous to the mo
tion of the blooal ; it absorbs all their affection and at
tention ; they are torn from it as from the only good in
this world, and return to their home as to a place of
exile and condemnation. Their eyes are forever turned
back to the object they have lost, and its recollection poi
sons the residue of their lives. Their first and most de
licate passions are hackneyed on unworthy objects here,
and they carry home the dregs, insufficient to make
themselves or any body else happy. Add to this, that a
habit of idleness, an inability to apply themselves to busi
ness is acquired, and renders them useless to themselves
and their country. These observations are founded in
experience. There is no place where your pursuit of
knowledge will be so little obstructed by foreign objects,
as in your own country, nor any, wherein the virtues of
the heart will be less exposed to be weakened. Be good,
be learned, and be industrious, and you will not want the
aid of travelling, to render you precious to your country,
dear to your friends, happy within yoifrself. I repeat
my advice, to take a great deal of exercise and on foot.
Health is the first requisite after morality. *

RULES FOR THE REGULATION OF MORAL CONDUCT.

This letter will, to you, be as one from the dead. The
writer will be in the grave before you can weigh its
councils. Your affectionate and excellent father has re
quested that 1 would address to you something which
might possibly have a favorable influence on the course
of life you have to run, and I too, as a namesake, feel an

* Addressed to Peter Carr.

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 393

interest in that course. Few words will be necessary,
with good dispositions on your part. Adore God. Re
verence and cherish your parents. Love your neighbor
as yourself, and your country more than yourselff Be
just. Be true. Murmur not at the ways of Providence.
So shall the life, into which you have entered, be the
portal to one of eternal and ineffable bliss. And if to the
dead it is permitted to take care for the things of this
world, every action of your life will be under my regard.
Farewell. *

The Portrait of a Good Man, by the most sublime of Poets,
for your imitation.

LOIID, who s the happy man that may to thy blest courts repair,

Not stranger like to visit them, but to inhabit there ?

Tis he, whose every thought and deed by rules of virtue moves ;

Whose generous tongue disdains to speak the thing his heart dis
proves.

Who never did a slander forge, his neighbor s fame to wound ;

Nor hearken to a false report, by malice whispered round.

Who vice, in all its pomp and power, can treat with just neglect ;

And piety, though clothed in rags, religiously respect.

Who to his plighted vows and trust has ever firmly stood ;

And though he promise to his loss, he makes his promise good.

Whose soul in usury disdains his treasure to employ ;

Whom no rewards can ever bribe the guiltless to destroy.

The man, who, by his steady course, has happiness insured,

When earth s foundations shake, shall stand, by Providence se
cured.

4 A Decalogue of Canons for observation in practical life.

1. Never put off till to-morrow what you can do to
day.

2. Never trouble another for what you can do your
self.

3. Never spend your money before you can have it.

4. Never buy what you do not want, because it is
cheap ; it will be dear to you.

5. Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst and cold.

6. We never repent of having eaten too little.

7. Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly.

* To T. Jefferson Smith.
34

394 LIFE OF

8. How much pain have cost us the evils which have
never happened.

9. Take things always by their smooth handle.

10. When angry, count ten before you speak ; if very
angry, a hundred.

HABITS OF LIVING. Your letter came to hand on the
1st instant ; and the request of the history of my physi
cal habits would have puzzled me not a little, had it not
been for the model with which you accompanied it, of
Doctor Rush s answer to a similar inquiry. I live so
much like other people, that I might refer to ordinary
life as the history of my own. Like my friend the Doc
tor, I have lived temperately, eating little animal food,
and that not as an aliment, so much as a condiment for
the vegetables, which constitute my principal diet. I
double, however, the Doctor s glass and a half of wine,
and even treble it with a friend ; but halve its effect by
drinking the weak wines only. The ardent wines I can
not drink, nor do I use ardent spirits in any form. Malt
liquors and cider are my table drinks, and my breakfast,
like that also of my friend, is of tea and coffee. I have
been blest with organs of digestion, which accept and
concoct, without ever murmuring, whatever the palate
chooses to consign to them, and I have not yet lost a
tooth by age. I was a hard student until I entered on
the business of life, the duties of which leave no idle time
to those disposed to fulfil them ; and now, retired, and at
the age of seventy-six, I am again a hard student. In
deed my fondness for reading and study revolts me from
the drudgery of letter-writing. And a stiff wrist, the
consequence of an early dislocation, makes writing both
slow and painful. I am not so regular in my sleep as
the Doctor says he was, devoting to it from five to eight
hours, according as my company or the book I am read
ing interests me ; and 1 never go to bed without an hour,
or a half hour s previous reading of something moral,
whereon to ruminate in the intervals of sleep. But
whether I retire to bed early or late, I rise with the sun.
I use spectacles at night, but not necessarily in the day,
unless in reading small print. My hearing is distinct in
particular conversation, but confused when several voices
cross each other, which unfits me. for the society of the

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 395

table. I have been more fortunate than my friend in the
article of health. So free from catarrhs that I have not
had one (in the breast, I mean) on an average of eight
or ten years through life. I ascribe this exemption part
ly to the habit of bathing my feet in cold water every
morning for sixty years past. A fever of more than
twenty-four hours I have not had above two or three
times in my life. A periodical headache has afflicted me
occasionally, once, perhaps, in six or eight years, for two
or three weeks at a time, which seems now to have left
me ; arid, except on a late occasion of indisposition, I
enjoy good health ; too feeble, indeed, to walk much,
but riding without fatigue six or eight miles a day, and
sometimes thirty or forty. I may end these egotisms,
therefore, as I began, by saying that my life has been so
much like that of other people, that I might say with
Horace, to every one, " Nomine mutato, narratur fabula
de te."

The limits to which we are confined, are a warning
against an extension of the interesting catalogue, or it
might be pursued indefinitely. The cabinet of the illus
trious recluse, besides exhibiting a faithful portrait of
himself, contains the wisdom of a long life of wonderful
experience and opportunities, and opens an inexhausti
ble store of materials for the historian, the philosopher,
the moralist, patriot, philanthropist, and statesman. His
course of life, while in retirement, was filled with acti
vity, and indulged in those occupations, which were the
master passions of every portion of it, reading, science,
correspondence, the cultivation of his farm, the endear
ments of family, and delights of social intercourse. He
carried into his retirement the same order and severity
of system, which had enabled him to surmount the great
est complication of duties in public life. He rose with
the sun. From that time to breakfast, and often until
noon, he was in his cabinet, chiefly employed in episto
lary correspondence. From breakfast, or noon at latest,
to dinner, he was engaged in his work-shops, his garden,
or on horseback among his farms. From dinner to dark,

396 LIFE OF

he gave to society and recreation with his neighbors and
friends ; and from candle-light to bed-time, he devoted
himself to reading and study. Gradually, as he grew
older, he became seized with a canine appetite for read
ing, as he termed it, and he indulged it freely, as prom
ising a relief against the tedium senectulis. His reading was
of the most substantial kind. Thucydides, Tacitus, Hor
ace, Newton, and Euclid, were his constant companions.
When young, mathematics was his passion. The same
returned upon him in his old age, but probably with un
equal power. Processes, he complained, which he
could then read off with the facility of common discourse,
now cost him labor and time, and slow investigation.
Yet no one but himself was sensible of any decay in his
intellectual energies. He possessed uncommon health,
with a constitutional buoyancy unbroken, and improved
by the salubrity of his mountain residence ; arid his
strength, which was yielding under the weight of years,
was considerably re-inforceJ by the activity of the course
he pursued. I talk of ploughs and harrows, he wrote
to a friend, of seeding and harvesting, with my neigh
bors, and of politics too, if they choose, with as little re
serve as the rest of rny fellow citizens, and feel, at length,
the blessing of being free to say and do what I please,
without being responsible for it to any mortal. A part
of his occupation was the direction of the studies of young
men ; multitudes of whom resorted to him. They locat
ed themselves in the neighboring village of Charlottes-
ville, where they were invited to a free access to his
library, enjoyed the benefit of his counsel, participated
of his hospitality, and made a part of his daily society.
1 In advising the course of their reading, said he, I en
deavor to keep their attention fixed on the main objects
of all science, the freedom and happiness of man. So
that coming to bear a share in the councils and govern
ment of their country, they will keep ever in view the
sole objects of all legitimate government,

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 397

The agricultural operations of Mr Jefferson were con
ducted upon an extensive scale, and consequently engaged
a great share of his attention. The domains at Monti-
cello, including the adjoining estates, contained about
eleven thousand acres, of which about fifteen hundred
were cleared. In addition to this, he owned a large es
tate in Bedford county, by right of his wife, from which
he raised annually about 40,000 weight of tobacco,
and grain sufficient to maintain the plantation. He vis
ited this estate, about seventy miles distant, once every
year, which kept him from home six or seven weeks at
a time. He had about two hundred negroes on his
farms, who required a constant superintendence, more
especially, under the peculiar system of agriculture
which he pursued. But his choicest labors in this de
partment, were bestowed on that delightful and beloved
spot, where all his labors were to end, as they had been
begun. He had reclaimed its ruggedness, when a very
young man, and of its wilderness made a garden ; and
now, in his old age, he returned to the farther develop
ment and improvement of its natural beauties.

MONTICELLO is derived from the Italian. It signifies
little mountain, modest title for an eminence, rising
six hundred feet above the surrounding country, and
commanding one of the most extensive and variegated
prospects in the world. The base of the mountain,
which is washed by the Ravanna, exceeds a mile in di
ameter ; and its sides are encompassed by four parallel
roads, sweeping round it at equal distances, and so
connected with each other by easy ascents, as to afford,
when completed, a level carriage-way of almost seven
miles. The whole mountain, with the exception of the
summit, is covered with a dense and lofty forest. On
the top is an elliptic plain of about ten acres, formed by
the hand of art, cutting down the apex of the mountain.
This extensive artificial level is laid out in a beautiful
lawn, broken only by lofty weeping willows, poplars,
34*

398 LIFE OF

acacias, catalpas, and other trees of foreign growth, dis
tributed at such distances as not to obstruct the view
from the centre in any direction. On the West, stretch
ing away to the North and the South, the prospect is
bounded only by the Alleganies, a hundred miles dis
tant in some parts, overreaching all the intervening
mountains, commanding a view of the Blue Ridge for a
hundred and fifty miles, and looking down upon an en
chanting landscape, broad as the eye can compass, of
intermingling villages and deserts, forest and cultivation,
mountains, valleys, rocks and rivers. On the East is a
literal immensity of prospect, bounded only by the hori
zon, in which nature seems to sleep in eternal repose.
From this grand point, bringing under the eye a most
magnificent panorama, are overlooked, like pigmies, all
the neighboring mountains as far as Chesapeake. Hence
it was that the youthful philosopher, before the revolu
tion, was wont to scrutinize the motions of the planets,
with the revolutions of the celestial sphere ; and to wit
ness that phenomenon described in his Notes on Virgin
ia, as among the sublimest of nature s operations, the
looming of the distant mountains. From this elevated
seat he was wont to enjoy those scenes to which he re
verted with so much fondness while in France : * And
our own dear Monticello ; where has nature spread so
rich a mantle under the eye 1 mountains, forests, rocks,
rivers. With what majesty do we there ride above the
storms ! How sublime to look down into the work
house of nature, to see her clouds, hail, snow, rain, thun
der, all fabricated at our feet ! and the glorious sun
when rising as if out of a distant water, just gilding the
tops of the mountains, and giving life to all nature.
From this proud summit, too, the patriot, in the lan
guage of a visitor, could look down, with uninterrupted
vision, upon the wide expanse of the world around, for
which he considered himself born ; and upward, to the
open and vaulted heavens which he seemed to approach,

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 399

as if to keep him continually in mind of his high respon
sibility. It is indeed a prospect in which you see and
feel at once, that nothing mean or little could live. It
is a scene fit to nourish those great and high-souled
principles which formed the elements of his character,
and was a most noble and appropriate post for such a
sentinel over the rights and liberties of man.

In the centre of this eminence rose the magnificent
mansion of the patriarch. It was erected and furnished
in the days of his affluence ; and was such a one, in all
respects, as became the character and fortune of the
man. The main structure is one hundred feet in length,
from East to West, and above sixty in depth, from North
to South, presenting a front in every direction. The
basement story is raised five or six feet above the ground,
from which springs the principal story, above twenty
feet in height, whereon rests an attic of about eight
feet. The whole is surmounted by a lofty dome of twen
ty eight feet in diameter, rising from the centre of the
building. The principal front faces the East, and is
adorned with a noble portico, balancing a corresponding
one on the West. The north and south fronts present
arcades or piazzas, under which are cool recesses that
open upon a floored terrace, projecting a hundred feet
in a straight line, and then another hundred feet at right
angles, until terminated by pavilions of two stories high.
Under the whole length of these terraces is a range of
one story buildings, in which are the offices requisite
for domestic purposes, and the lodgings of the house
hold servants. The exterior of the structure is finished
in the Doric order complete, with balustrades on the top
of it ; the internal contains specimens of all the different
orders, except the composite, which is not introduced.
The hall is in the Ionic, the dining room in the Doric,
the parlor in the Corinthian, and the dome in the Attic.
Improvements and additions, both useful and ornament
al, were continually going on, as they were suggested

400 LIFE OF

by the taste of the owner. Indeed, the whole building
had been almost in a constant state of re-building, from
its ante-revolutionary form, which was highly finished,
to the present time ; and so I hope it will remain dur
ing my life, said he to a visitor, as architecture is my
delight, and putting up, and pulling down, one of my
favorite amusements.

On the declivities of the mountain are arranged the
dwellings of artificers and mechanics of every de
scription, and their work shops ; for it was the study
of the illustrious proprietor to make himself perfectly in
dependent. He had his carpenter s shop, his black
smith s shop, cabinet shop, <fec, &c, with a complete
suit of manufactories for cottons and woollens, grain
mills, sawing mills, and a nail factory conducted by boys.
His carriage was made by his own workmen, as were
also many articles of his fine furniture. The fabrication
with his own hands of curious implements and models,
was one of his favorite amusements.

On entering the mansion by the east front, the visitor
is ushered into a spacious and lofty hall, whose hang
ings announce at once the character and ruling passions
of the man. On the right, on the left, and around, his
eye is struck with objects of science and taste. On one
side are specimens of sculpture, in the form of statues
and busts, disposed in such order, as to exhibit at one
view the historical progress of the art ; from the first
rude attempts of the aborigines of our country, to the
most finished models of European masters, including
a bust of the patriot himself, from the hand of Ca-
racci. Among others are noticed the bust cf a male
and female sitting in the Indian position, supposed to be
very ancient, having been ploughed up in Tennessee ; a
full length figure of Cleopatra, in a reclining position,
after she had applied the asp ; the busts of Voltaire and
Turgot, in plaster. His own bust stands on a truncated
column, on the pedestal of which are represented the

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 401

twelve tribes of Israel, and the twelve signs of the Zo
diac. On the other side of the hall are displayed a vast
collection of specimens of Indian art, their paintings,
engravings, weapons, ornaments, manufactures, statues,
and idols; and on another, a profusion of natural curi
osities, prodigies of ancient art, "fossil productions of
every description, mineral and animal, &c, &c. Among
others are particularly noticed a model of the great pyr
amid of Egypt ; the upper and lower jaw bones and
tusks of the mammoth, advantageously contrasted with
those of an elephant.

From the hall the visitor enters a spacious saloon,
through large folding doors. In this apartment, the
walls are covered with the modern productions of the
pencil, historical paintings of the most striking subjects
from all countries, and all ages ; scriptural paintings,
among which are the ascension, the holy family, the
scourging of Christ, and the crucifixion ; the portraits of
distinguished characters, both of Europe and America;
with engravings, coins, and medallions in endless pro
fusion. Here, and in the other rooms, are the portraits
of Bacon, Newton, and Locke ; of Columbus, Vespucius,
Cortez, Magellan, Raleigh ; of Franklin, Washington,
La Fayette, Adams, Madison, Rittenhouse, Paine, and
many other remarkable men. Here, too, are the busts
of Alexander and Napoleon, placed on pedestals upon
each side of the door of entrance.

The whole of the southern wing is occupied by the
library, cabinet, and chamber of Mr Jefferson. The li
brary is divided into three apartments, opening into each
other, the walls of which are covered with books and
maps. It contained at one time the greatest private col
lection of books ever known in the United States, and
incomparably the most valuable, from the multitude of
rare works and the general superiority of the editions.
He had been fifty years enriching and perfecting his as
sortment, omitting no pains, opportunities or expense.

402

LIFE OF

While in Paris he devoted every afternoon he was disen
gaged, for a summer or two, in examining the principal
book stores, and putting by every thing which related
to America, with whatever was valuable in the sciences.
Besides this he had standing orders, during the whole
time he was in Europe, in its principal bookmarts, for
all such works as could not be found in Paris. After
the conflagration of Washington in the last war, and
the destruction of the library, he sold about ten thousand
volumes to the government, to replace the devastations
of British Vandalism. Confiding in the honor of Con
gress, he made a tender of them to the government, at
their own price. In his cabinet, he is surrounded with
several, hundred of his favorite authors, lying near at
hand, with every accommodation and luxury which ease
or taste could suggest. This apartment opened into a
green-house, filled with a collection of rare plants ; and
he was seldom without some geranium or other plant
beside him. Connected with his study were extensive
apparatus for mathematical, philosophical, and optical
purposes. It was supposed there was no private gentle
man in the world in possession of so perfect and com
plete a scientific, useful, and ornamental a collection as
Mr Jefferson.

Such is an imperfect representation of a patriarchal
seat and appendages, whose just celebrity has attracted
the wayfarer of every land. But who shall describe its
great architect and occupant 1 Let this duty be dis
charged by adopting the record of a distinguished guest :

While the visitor was yet lost in the contemplation
of these treasures of the arts and sciences, he was start
led by the approach of a strong and sprightly step, and
turning with instinctive reverence to the door of entrance,
he was met by the tall, and animated, and stately figure
of the patriot himself his countenance beaming with
intelligence and benignity, and his outstretched hand,
with its strong and cordial pressure, confirming the cour-

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 403

teous welcome of his lips. And then came that charm
of manner and conversation that passes all description
so cheerful so unassuming so free, and easy, and
frank, and kind, and gay that even the young, and
overawed, and embarrassed visitor at once forgot his
fears, and felt himself by the side of an old and familiar
friend. There was no effort, no ambition in the con
versation of the philosopher. It was as simple and un
pretending as nature itself. And while in this easy man
ner he was pouring out instruction, like light from an
inexhaustible solar fountain, he seemed continually to be
asking, instead of giving information. The visitor felt
himself lifted by the contact, into a new and nobler re
gion of thought, and became surprised at his own buoy
ancy and vigor. He could not, indeed, help being as
tounded, now and then, at those transcendent leaps of
the mind, which he ^saw made without the slightest ex-
ertion, and the ease with which this wonderful man
played with subjects which he had been in the habit of
considering among the argumcnta crucis of the intellect.
And then there seemed to be no end to his knowledge.
He was a thorough master of every subject that was
touched. From the details of the humblest mechanic
art, up to the highest summit of science, he was perfectly
at his ease, and every where at home. There seemed to
be no longer any terra incognita of the human under
standing : for, what the visitor had thought so, he now
found reduced to a familiar garden walk ; and all this
carried off so lightly, so playfully, so gracefully, so en
gagingly, that he won every heart that approached him,
as certainly as he astonished every mind.

Although reposing in the bosom of his native moun
tains, and happy in the indulgence of pursuits and en
joyments, from which nothing but revolutionary duties
would ever have separated him, his seclusion did not
shield him from those annoyances which are inseparable
from renown. He was persecuted with a deluge of let-

404 LIFE OF

ters, of which every mail brought a fresh accumulation;
not those from his intimate friends, but from strangers
and others, who, as he said oppressed him, in the
most friendly dispositions, with their concerns. This
drew upon him a burden, which formed a great obstacle
to the delights of retirement ; for it was a rule with Mr
Jefferson, never to omit answering any respectful letter,
however obscure the writer, or insignificant the object.
Happening on one occasion to turn to his letter-list, his
curiosity was excited to ascertain the number received
in the course of a single year; and on counting, it ap
peared there were one thousand two hundred and sixty
seven, many of them requiring answers of elaborate re
search, and all to be answered with due attention and
consideration. Taking an average of this number for
a week or a day, and he might well compare his drudge
ry at the writing table to the life of a mill-horse,
who sees no end to his circle but in death, or to the life
of a cabbage, which was a paradise in contrast. For
these intrusions, however, not a murmur escaped from
him in public ; and when compelled to allude to them in
his letters of friendship, as apologies for his apparent
remissness in this department, he would lament them
only, as the kind indiscretions which were so heavily
oppressing the departing hours of life.

To his persecutions from this source, was occasionally
superadded the treachery of correspondents, in the pub
lication of his letters ; which subjected him to much
mortification and uneasiness, when his strongest desire
was to die in the good will of all mankind. Conscious
of his own singleness and honesty, he habitually trusted
his fellow-man ; and though often betrayed, he would
never surrender the happiness of this confidence. To
the possession of this attribute, are to be ascribed in
great part, the firmness and fidelity of that phalanx,
which under every pressure of injustice, in every tempest
of political dissension, supported him undismayed. He,

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 405

who so fondly trusted others, was sure to be trusted him
self. Thus am I situated, he wrote to a friend I re
ceive letters from all quarters, some from known friends,
some from those who write like friends on various sub
jects. What am I to do 1 Am I to button myself up in
Jesuitical reserve, rudely declining any answer, or an
swering in terms so unmeaning, as only to prove my dis
trust ? Must I withdraw myself from all interchange of
sentiment with the world 1 I cannot do this. It is at
war with my habits and temper. I cannot act as if all
men were unfaithful, because some are so ; nor believe,
that all will betray me because some do. I had rather
be the victim of occasional infidelities, than relinquish
my general confidence in the honesty of man.

There is nothing more beautiful in the history of the
retirement of this great man, than his exertions to revive
the revolutionary affections between Mr Adams and him- |
self, which had been interrupted by the intermediate con- \
flicts of political opinion. They had ceased in expres- ]
sion only, not in their existence or cordiality, on the part I
of Mr Jefferson, who regarded the discontinuance of
friendly correspondence between them, as one of the
most painful occurrences in his life. With Mr Adams,
they had been affected, though never destroyed, partly
by the sanguine cast of his constitution, but principally
by the artful and imposing suggestions of busy in
triguers, that Mr Jefferson perhaps participated in the
electioneering activity and licentiousness of the contest
which was overthrowing his administration. The injus
tice of this imputation is apparent from the fact, that in
his most confidential letters he never alluded to Mr
Adams with personal disrespect, and even charged the
errors of his administration upon his ministers and ad
visers, not upon him. An instance of magnanimity to
wards his competitor, has been recorded of him by a po
litical opponent, who was an eye-witness of the scene.
In Virginia, where the opposition to the federal aseen-
35

406 LIFE OF

dency ran high, the younger spirits of the day, catching
their tone from the public journals, imputed to Mr Adams,
on various occasions, in the presence of Mr Jefferson, a
concealed design to overturn the republic, and supply its
place with a monarchy on the British model. The an
swer of Mr Jefferson to this charge, will never be for
gotten by those who heard it, of whom there are many
still living besides the particular narrator. It was this :
1 Gentlemen, you do not know that man : there is not upon
\ this earth a more perfectly honest man than John Adams.
Concealment is no part of his character ; of that he is
utterly incapable : it is not in his nature to meditate any
Jthing that he would not publish to the world. The mea
sures of the general government are a fair subject for dif
ference of opinion. But do not found your opinions on
the notion, that there is the smallest spice of dishonesty,
moral or political, in the character of John Adams ; for
I know him well, and I repeat it, that a man more per
fectly honest never issued from the hands of his Creator. *
Two or three years after, to wit, in 1804, having had
the misfortune to lose a daughter, between whom and
Mrs Adams there had been considerable intimacy, she
made it the occasion of writing Mr Jefferson a letter of
condolence ; in which, with sentiments of concern for
the event, she avoided a single expression of friendship
towards himself, and even concluded it with the wishes
* of her who once took pleasure in subscribing herself
your friend, &c. Unpromising as was the complex
ion of this letter, he seized the partial opening which it
offered, to make an effort towards removing the clouds
from between them. The answer of Mr Jefferson ex
pressed the warmest sensibility for the kindness mani
fested towards his daughter ; went largely into explana
tions of the circumstances which had seemed to draw a
line of separation between them ; and breathed fervent

* Wirt s Eulogy.

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 407

wishes for a reconciliation with herself and Mr Adams.
In conclusion, he said : * I have thus, my dear madam,
opened myself to you without reserve, which I have long
wished an opportunity of doing ; and without knowing
how it will be received, I feel relief from being unbosom
ed. And I have only now to entreat your forgiveness for
this transition from a subject of domestic affliction, to one
which seems of a different aspect. But though connect
ed with political events, it has been viewed by me most
strongly in its unfortunate bearings on my private friend
ships. The injury these have sustained has been a heavy
price for what has never given me equal pleasure. That
you both may be favored with health, tranquillity and
long life, is the prayer of one who tenders you the assur
ance of his highest consideration and esteem. This let
ter was followed by a farther correspondence between the
parties, from which, soon finding that reconciliation was
desperate, he yielded to an intimation in the last letter
of Mrs Adams, and ceased from farther explanations.

Being now retired from all connection with the politi
cal world, with every ground of jealousy removed, his
determination, with his hopes, revived to make another
effort towards restoring a friendly understanding with
his revolutionary colleague. To this end he opened a
correspondence with Dr Rush, a mutual friend, upon the
subject; to whom he gave a history of all that had hap
pened between them ; enclosed to him the late unsuccess
ful correspondence ; and expressed his undiminished at
tachment to Mr Adams, with the wish that he would use
his endeavors to re-establish ancient dispositions between
them. A short time after, two of Mr Jefferson s neigh
bors and friends, while on a tour to the northward, fell in
company with Mr Adams at Boston, and passed a day
with him at Braintree. In the freedom and enthusiasm
of the occasion, he spoke out every thing which came
uppermost, without reserve ; dwelt particularly upon his
own administration, and alluded to his masters, as he

408 LIFE OF

called his heads of department, representing them as hav
ing acted above his control and often against his opin
ions. Among other topics, he adverted to the unprinci
pled licentiousness of the press against Mr Jefferson, ad
ding, I always loved Jefferson, and still love him.

The moment Mr Jefferson received this intelligence he
again wrote to his friend Rush :

This is enough for me. I only needed this knowl
edge to revive towards him all the affections of the most
cordial moments of our lives. Changing a single word
only in Dr Franklin s character of him, I knew him to
be always an honest man, often a great one, but some
times incorrect and precipitate in his judgments : and it
is known to those who have ever heard me speak of Mr
Adams, that I have ever done him justice myself, and de
fended him when assailed by others, with the single ex-
\ception as to his political opinions. But with a man
^possessing so many other estimable qualities, why should
Iwe be dissocialized by mere differences of opinion in pol
itics, in religion, in philosophy, or any thing else. His
I opinions are as honestly formed as my own. Our differ-
I ent views of the same subject are the result of a differ-
1 ence in our organization and experience. I never with
drew from the society of any man on this account, al
though many have done it from me ; much less should I
do it from one with whom I had gone through, with hand
and heart, so many trying scenes. I wish, therefore, but
for an apposite occasion to express to Mr Adams my un
changed affections for him. There is an awkwardness
which hangs over the resuming a correspondence so long
discontinued, unless something could arise which should
call for a letter. Time and chance may perhaps gene
rate such an occasion, of which I shall not be wanting in
promptitude to avail myself. From this fusion of mutual
affections, Mrs Adams is of course separated. It will
only be necessary that I never name her. In your letters
to Mr Adams, you can perhaps, suggest my continued
cordiality towards him, and knowing this, should an oc
casion of writing first present itself to him, he will per
haps avail himself of it, as I certainly will, should it first
occur to me. No ground for jealousy no.vv existing, he

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 409

will certainly give fair play to the natural warmth of his
heart. Perhaps I may open the way in some letter to
my old friend Gerry, who I know is in habits of the
greatest intimacy with him.

I have thus, rny friend, laid open my heart to you, be
cause you were so kind as to take an interest in healing
again revolutionary affections, which have ceased in ex
pression only, but not in their existence. God ever bless
you and preserve you in life and health.

In the course of another month, these two patriarchs
of the revolution were brought together, after a ten years
suspension of all friendly intercommunication. The cor
respondence which passed between them is highly inter
esting. It has been well described, as resembling more
than any thing else, one of those conversations in the
Elysium of the ancients, which the shades of the depart
ed great were supposed to hold, with regard to the af
fairs of the world they had left. Mr Jefferson s part, or
probably the greatest portion of it, has already been giv
en to the world, and would make a volume of itself. A
few disjointed fragments, of the personal and desultory
kind, taken promiscuously from his letters of different
dates, are all that can be expected to enter into this gen
eral view of the correspondence.

A letter from you calls up recollections very dear to
my mind. It carries me back to the times when, beset
with difficulties and dangers, we were fellow laborers in
the same cause, struggling for what is most valuable to
man, his right of self-government. Laboring always at
the same oar, with some wave ever ahead threatening to
overwhelm us, and yet passing harmless under our bark,
we knew not how we rode through the storrn with heart
and hand, and made a happy port. Still we did not ex
pect to be without rubs and difficulties ; and we have
had them. First the detention of the western posts :
then the coalition of Pilnitz, outlawing our commerce
with France, and the British enforcement of the out
lawry. In your day, French depredations : in mine,
English, and the Berlin and Milan decrees : now, the
35*

410 LIFE OF

English orders of council, and the piracies they autho
rise. When these shall be over, it will be the impress
ment of our seamen, or something else r and so we have
gone on, and so we shall go on, puzzled and prospering
beyond example in the history of man. And I do be
lieve we shall continue to grow, to multiply and pros
per, until we exhibit an association, powerful, wise>
and happy, beyond what has yet been seen by men.*

* I have thus stated my opinion on a point on which
we differ, not with a view to controversy, for we are
both too old to change opinions which are the result of
a long life of enquiry and reflection ; but on the sug
gestion of a former letter of yours, that we ought not to
die before we have explained ourselves to each other.
We acted in perfect harmony, through a long and peril
ous contest for our liberty and independence. A con
stitution has been acquired, which, though neither of us
thinks perfect, yet both consider as competent to render
our fellow citizens the happiest and the securest on
whom the sun has ever shone. If we do not think ex
actly alike as to its imperfections, it matters little to
our country, which, after devoting to it long lives of dis
interested labor, we have delivered over to our succes
sors in life, who will be able to take care of it and of
themselves.

*I learned with great regret the serious illness men
tioned in your letter ; and I hope Mr Rives will be able
to tell me you are entirely restored. But our machines
have now been running seventy or eighty years, and we
must expect that, worn as they are, here a pivot, there
a wheel, now a pinion, next a spring, will be giving way ;
and however we may tinker them up for a while, all will
at length surcease motion. Our watches, with works of
brass and steel, wear out within that period. Shall you
and I last to see the course the seven-fold wonders of
the times will take ? The Attila of the age dethroned,
the ruthless destroyer of ten millions of the human
race, whose thirst for blood appeared unquenchable, the
great oppressor of the rights and liberties of the world,
shut up within the circuit of a little island of the MedU
terranean, and dwindling to the condition of a humble

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 411

and degraded pensioner on the bounty of those he has
most injured. How miserably, how meanly, has he
closed his inflated career ? What a sample of the ba
thos will his history present ! He should have perished
on the swords of his enemies under the walls of Paris.

You ask, if I would agree to live my seventy or
rather seventy-three years over again ? To which I say,
yea. I think with you, that it is a good world on the
whole ; that it has been framed on a principle of benevo
lence, and more pleasure than pain dealt out to us.
There are. indeed, (who might say nay) gloomy and hy
pochondriac minds, inhabitants of diseased bodies, dis
gusted with the present, and despairing of the future ;
always counting that the worst will happen, because it
may happen. To these I say, how much pain have cost
us the evils which have never happened ! My tempera
ment is sanguine. I steer my bark with Hope in the
head, leaving Fear astern. My hopes, indeed, some
times fail ; but not oftener than the forebodings of the
gloomy. There are, I acknowledge, even in the hap
piest life, some terrible convulsions, heavy set-offs against
the opposite page of the account. I have often wonder
ed for what good end the sensations of grief could be
intended. All our other passions, within proper bounds,
have a useful object. And the perfection of the moral
character is, not in a stoical apathy, so hypocritically
vaunted, and so untruly too, because impossible, but in
a just equilibrium of all the passions. I wish the patho-
logists then would tell us what is the use of grief in the
economy, and of what good it is the cause, proximate or
remote.

The public papers, my dear friend, announce the
fatal event of which your letter of October the 20th, had
given me ominous foreboding. Tried myself in the
school of affliction, by the loss of every form of connec
tion which can rive the human heart, I know well and
feel what you have lost, what you have suffered, are suf
fering, and have yet to endure. The same trials have
taught me that, for ills so immeasurable, time and
silence are the only medicine. I will not, therefore, by
useless condolences, open afresh the sluices of your

412 LIFE OF

grief, nor, although mingling sincerely my tears with
yours, will I say a word more where words are vain,
but that it is of some comfort to us both, that the term is
not very distant, at which we are to deposit in the same
cerement our sorrows and suffering bodies, and to ascend
in essence to an ecstatic meeting with the friends we have
loved and lost, and whom we shall still love, and never
lose again. God bless you, and support you under~your
heavy affliction.

Putting aside these things, however for the present,
I write this letter as due to a friendship coeval with our
government, and now attempted to be poisoned,* when
too late in life to be replaced by new affections. I had
for some time observed, in the public papers, dark hints
and mysterious inuendoes of a correspondence of yours
with a friend, to whom you had opened your bosom with
out reserve, and which was to be made public by that
friend or his representative. And now it is said to be
actually published. It has not yet reached us, but ex
tracts have been given, and such as seemed most likely
to draw a curtain of separation between you and myself.
Were there no other motive than that of indignation
against the author of this outrage on private confidence,
whose shaft seems to have been aimed at yourself more
particularly, this would make it the duty of every honor
able mind to disappoint that aim, by opposing to its
impression a seven-fold shield of apathy and insensi
bility. With me, however, no such armor is needed.
The circumstances of the times in which we have hap
pened to live, and the partiality of our friends at a par
ticular period, placed us in a state of apparent opposi
tion, which some might suppose to be personal also:
and there might not be wanting those who wished to
make it so, by filling our ears with malignant falsehoods,
by dressing up hideous phantoms of their own creation,
presenting them to you under my name, to me under
yours, and endeavoring to instil into our minds things
concerning each other the most destitute of truth. And
if there had been, at any time, a moment when we were
off our guard, and in a temper to let the whispers of

<-.* Alluding to the Cunningham Correspondence.

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 413

these people make us forget what we had known of each
other for so many years, and years of so much trial, yet
all men, who have attended to the workings of the hu
man mind, who have seen the false colors under which
passion sometimes dresses the actions and motives of
others, have seen also those passions subsiding with time
and reflection, dissipating like mists before the rising
sun, and restoring to us the sight of all things in their
true shape and colors. It would be strange, indeed, if,
at our years, we were to go an age back to hunt imagi
nary or forgotten facts, to disturb the repose of affec
tions so sweetening to the evening of our lives. Be as
sured, my dear Sir, that I am incapable of receiving the
slightest impression from the effort now made to plant
thorns on the pillow of age, worth, and wisdom, and to
sow tares between friends who have been such for near
half a century. Beseeching you, then, not to suffer
your mind to be disquieted by this wicked attempt to
poison its peace, and praying you to throw it by among
the things which have never happened, I add sincere as
surances of my unabated and constant attachment,
friendship and respect.

But the cultivation of the affections and the delights
of philosophical and agricultural occupation, were sub
jects which engaged only a subordinate share of the at
tention of Mr Jefferson. One other enterprise of public
utility, which it was reserved for him to accomplish,
constituted the engrossing topic of his mind, from the
moment of his return to private life, to the hour of his
death. This was the establishment of the University of
Virginia. Having assisted in achieving for his country
the blessings of civil and religious liberty, he considered
the work but half completed, without securing to pos
terity the means of preserving that condition of moral
culture on which the perpetuation of those blessings de
pends. It was one of the first axioms established in his
mind, that the liberties of a nation could never be safe
but in the hands of the people, and that too of the people ;
with a certain degree of instruction. A system of edu-f

414 LIFE OF

/ cation, therefore, which should reach every description
/ of citizens, as it was the earliest, so it was the latest of
/ public concerns in which he permitted himself to take an
I interest.

The opinions of Mr Jefferson on the subjuct of edu
cation were given in detail, while the revised code of
Virginia was under consideration ; of which the bill for
the general diffusion of knowledge, drafted by him,
was a distinguishing feature. The system marked out
in that bill, proposed three distinct grades of instruction ;
which may be explained by adopting a single expression
of the author, to give the highest degrees of education
to the higher degrees of genius, and to all degrees of it,
so much as may enable them to read and understand
what is going on in the world, and to keep their part of
it going on right. No part of this system had been car
ried into effect by the legislature, except that proposing
the elementary grade of instruction ; and the intention
of this was completely defeated by the option given to
the county courts.* The university composed the ulti
mate grade of the system, and was the one which pecu
liarly enlisted the zeal of the founder, without however
subtracting from his devotion to the whole scheme. In

* To promote this object of elementary instruction, money was
appropriated by the legislature for the support of free schools
throughout the State. Men in easy circumstances, and able to
send their children to better schools would not accept this pri
vilege ; and those, who might have considered such a privilege
desirable under different circumstances, would not accept for their
own children, what their more wealthy neighbors considered too
unworthy for theirs ; and it took the character of a legislative
bounty which none but mean persons or paupers would improve,
and soon became wholly neglected by all. In many if not in all
parts of New England, free schools, from the same cause which so
effectually put them down in Virginia, are falling into disrepute,
viz. the increasing inequality in the condition of the people, and
the disposition of the rich to embrace for their children better op
portunities for improvement than is afforded to all at the public ex
pense.

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 415

this institution, like those of the university rank in Eu
rope, it was his intention to have taught every branch
of science, useful to mankind, and in its highest degree;
with such a classification of the sciences into particular
groups, as to require so many professors only as might
bring them within the views of a just economy.

The plan of the university was .original with Mr Jef
ferson the offspring of his genius, aided by his exten
sive observations while in Europe. The university of
Virginia is emphatically his work. His was the first
conception, having been started by him more than forty
years ago ; his, the subsequent impulse which brought it
to maturity ; his, the whole scheme of its studies, organ
ization and government ; and his the architecture of its
buildings, in which he improved the occasion to present
a specimen of each of the orders of the art, founded on
Grecian and Roman models. He did this last with a
view to inspire the youth who resorted thither, with the
imposing associations of antiquity, and to retrieve, as
far as he could, the character of his country from that
pointed sarcasm in his Notes on Virginia, that the gen
ius of architecture seems to have shed its maledictions
over this land. Being located within four miles of Mon-
ticello, he superintended its erection daily, and with the
purest satisfaction. The plan of the building embraced :
1st. Pavilions, arranged on either side of a lawn, inde
finite in length, to contain each a lecture room, and pri
vate apartments sufficient to accommodate a professor
and his family. 2d. A range of Dormitories, connecting
the pavilions, of one story high, sufficient each for the
accommodation of two students only as the most ad
vantageous to morals, order and uninterrupted study,
with a passage under cover from the weather, giving a
communication along the whole range. 3d. Hotels, for
the dieting of the students, to contain each a single room
fora refectory, and accommodations sufficient for the ten
ants charged with this department. 4th. A Rotunda, or

416 LIFE OP

large circular building, in which were rooms for religious
worship, under such regulations as the visitors should
prescribe ; for public examinations, for a library, for
schools of music, drawing and other purposes. The
principal novelties in the scheme of its studies, were a
professorship of the principles of government, to be
founded in the riglits of man, to use the language of the
originator ; a professorship of agriculture ; one of modern
languages, among which the Anglo-Saxon was inclu
ded, that the learner might imbibe with their language,
their free principles of government ; and the absence of
a professorship of divinity, * to give fair play to the cul
tivation of reason, as well as to avoid the constitutional
objection against a public establishment of any religious
instruction. A rector and board of visitors, appointed
by the legislature, composed the government of the insti
tution ; and their first meeting was in August, 1818, at
Rockfish Gap, on the Blue Ridge, at which Mr Jefferson
presided, and drafted the first annual report to the legis
lature. He was also appointed rector of the university,
in which office he continued until his death, whenTTe was
succeeded by Mr Madison. The establishment went in
to operation in the spring of 1825, and is now in a flour
ishing condition.

The weight of opposition which this institution encoun
tered, through every stage of its progress, were such as
would have been insurmountable to any person possess
ing less perseverance, or less ascendency of personal
character than Mr Jefferson. Besides the ordinary cir
cumstances of resistance, common to every enterprise of
the kind in this country, it was met at the outset by a
combination of religious jealousies, probably never equal
led. Hostile as they were in every other point, to one
another, all the religious sects in the State cordially co
operated in the effort to frustrate an institution which,i
from the circumstance of its favoring no particular school
of divinity to the exclusion of another, was presumed to

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 417

be inimical to all religion. These antipathies, with the
host of sectional rivalries, the steady counteraction of
William and Mary, and the tardy pace of the public pat
ronage, produced an array of difficulties which was ob
served to cloud the brow of Mr Jefferson with an anxiety
to which he was a stranger under the most afflicting oc
currences of his political career. Yet he never despair
ed, resolving to die in the last ditch rather than give
way. After an exhortation to one of his colleagues of
the visitation, to exert all his faculties to allay the op
position, and arouse the legislature to a sense of their
distresses, he says :

* I have brooded, perhaps with fondness, over this es
tablishment, as it held up to me the hope of continuing
to be useful while I continued to live. I had believed
that the course and circumstances of my life had placed
within my power some services favorable to the outset of
the institution. But this may be egotism ; pardonable,
perhaps, when I express a consciousness that my col
leagues and successors will do as well, whatever the leg
islature shall enable them to do.

Again he writes to another friend of the university in
the legislature :

When I retired from the administration of public af
fairs, I thought I saw some evidence that I retired with a
good degree of public favor, and that my conduct-in of
fice had been considered by the one party at least, with
approbation, and with acquiescence by the other. But
the attempt, in which I have embarked so earnestly,
to procure an improvement in the moral condition of
my native State, although, perhaps, in other States it
may have strengthened good dispositions, has assuredly
weakened them in our own. The attempt ran foul of so
many local interests, of so many personal views, and so
much ignorance, and I have been considered as so par
ticularly its promoter, that I see evidently a great change
of sentiment towards myself. I cannot doubt its having
dissatisfied with myself a respectable minority, if not a
majority of the house of delegates. I feel it deeply and
316

418

LIFE OF

very discouragingly ; yet I shall not give way. I have
ever found in my progress through life, that acting for
the public, if we do always what is right, the approba
tion denied in the beginning will surely follow us in the
end. It is from posterity we are to expect renumera-
tion, for the sacrifices we are making for their service of
time, quiet, and good will.

At another time he bursts forth in a letter to one of
his colleagues, in a strain of despondency mingled with
supplication, strongly portraying the difficulties in the
way, and the solicitude which he felt for the result :

* But the gloomiest of all prospects, is in the desertion
of the best friends of the institution, for desertion I must
call it. I know not the necessities which may force this
on you. General Cocke, you say, will explain them to
me ; but I cannot conceive them, nor persuade myself
they are uncontrollable. I have ever hoped, that your
self, General Breckenridge, and Mr Johnson, would
stand at your posts in the legislature, until every thing
was effected, and the institution opened. If it is so dif
ficult to get along with all the energy and influence of
our present colleagues in the legislature, how can we
expect to proceed at all, reducing our moving power?
I know well your devotion to your country, and your fore
sight of the awful scenes coming on her, sooner or later.
With this foresight, what service can we ever render her
equal to this ? What object of our lives can we propose
so important ? What interest of our own which ought
not to be postponed to this ? Health, time, labor, on what
in the single life which nature has given us, can these be
better bestowed than on this immortal boon to our coun
try ? The exertions and the mortifications are tempora
ry ; the benefit eternal. If any member of our college
of visitors could justifiably withdraw from this sacred
duty, it would be myself, who quadragenis stipendiis jam-
dudumpcractis, have neither vigor of body nor mind left
to keep the field : but 1 will die in the last ditch, and so
I hope you will, my friend, as well as our firm-breasted
brothers and colleagues, Mr Johnson and General Breck
enridge. Nature will not give you a second life where
in to atone for the omissions of this. Pray then, dear

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 419

and very dear sir, do not think of deserting us, but view
the sacrifices which seem to stand in your way, as the
lesser duties, and such as ought to be postponed to this,
the greatest of all. Continue with us in these holy la
bors, until, having seen their accomplishment, we may
say with old Simeon, Nunc dimittas, Domine"

The enthusiasm with which the patriarch embarked in
this great undertaking, arose in a principal degree from
its contemplated bearing on the future destinies of hi
country in a political sense. He intended it as a sch
for the future politicians and statesmen of the republi
in whose service he had worn out his life. The illustrii
ous man who succeeded him in its rectorship, has said :\
This temple dedicated to science and liberty, was, after
Mr Jefferson s retirement from the political sphere, the
object nearest his heart, and so continued to the end of
his life. His devotion to it was intense, and his exer
tions unceasing. It bears the stamp of his genius, and
will be a noble monument to his fame. His general view
was to make it a nursery of republican patriots, as well as
genuine scholars.

The satisfaction with which he reflected on the suc
cess of his labors, is expressed with a noble pride in a
personal communication to the legislature, a little be
fore his death, wrung from him by the pressing hand of
poverty.

4 The effect, says he, of this institution on the future
fame, fortune, and prosperity of our country, can as yet
be seen but at a distance. But a hundred well educa
ted youths, which it will turn out annually, and ere
long, will fill all its offices with men of superior qualifi
cations, will raise it from its humble state to an emi
nence among its associates which it has never yet
known ; no, not in its brightest days. That institution
is now qualified to raise its youth to an order of science
unequalled in any other State ; and this superiority will
be the greater from the free range of mind encouraged
there, and the restraint imposed at other seminaries by

420

LIFE OF

the shackles of a domineering hierarchy, and a bigoted
adhesion to ancient habits. Those now on the theatre
of affairs will enjoy the ineffable happiness of seeing
themselves succeeded by sons of a grade of science be
yond their own ken. Our sister States will also be re
pairing to the same fountains of instruction, will bring
hither their genius to be kindled at our fire, and will
carry back the fraternal affections which, nourished by
the same Alma Mater, will knit us to them by the in
dissoluble bonds of early personal friendships. The
good old dominion, the blessed mother of us all, will
then raise her head with pride among the nations, will
present to them that splendor of genius which she has
ever possessed, but has too long suffered to rest uncul
tivated and unknown, and will become a centre of ral-
liance to the States whose youths she has instructed,
and, as it were, adopted. I claim some share in the
merits of this great work of regeneration. My whole
labors, now for many years, have been devoted to it,
and 1 stand pledged to follow it up through the remnant
of life remaining to me.

Such were the concluding labors of one who had
numbered more than four score years, and devoted sixty
of them uninterruptedly to the service of his country.
Long after the most of those who were his original ad
herents or opponents had disappeared from the world,
he continued the champion of the same political doc
trines which he espoused in the fire of youth ; nay, upon
the verge of the grave he stood, as it were, the embodied
spirit of the revolution, in all its purity and power,
nourishing with its wholesome influence the acting gene
ration of his country, and distributing its revolutionary
energies among the nations of the earth which still
slumbered in despotism.

Why should we attempt coolly to particularize the dis
tinguishing features of a public character, whose de
velopments in the aggregate were so extraordinary, and
have given so powerful and lasting a direction to the
current of human thought ? Adopting a humble imita-

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 421

tion of his delineation of general Washington, may it
not be summarily represented as in the mass perfect,
in many points unrivalled, in nothing bad, in few points
indifferent.

His heart was most fervent in its affections ; and as
confiding as innocence itself, never harboring a suspi
cion of the depository of its trust, and, what is more
uncommon, as tenacious as it was ardent and confiding,
holding on to its object without abatement under every vi
cissitude. His friendships were indissoluble, those con
tracted earliest continuing the same through life. His
justice was severe, sacrificing the claims of the closest
ties of affection, to avoid the contamination of dishonor.
His temper was proverbially even, serene, and buoyant ;
thrusting fear always aside, and cherishing habitually
the fond incitements of hope. Of domestic life he was
at once the adorer and the idol, ever anxious to forego
honors and emoluments for its enjoyment ; and such
was the influence of his affection upon those around him,
that he was almost worshipped by his family. He de
lighted in the society of children, with whom he was
accustomed in his old age, to practise feats of agility
which few could imitate. Being taken by surprise on
one of these occasions, by the entrance of a stranger, he
grasped his hand, and smiling, said : I will make no
other apology than the good Henry the Fourth did,
when he was caught by an ambassador playing horse
and riding one of his children on his back, by asking,
are you a father ? if you are, no apology is necessary.
His powers of conversation were of the highest order ;
and made him the soul and centre of the social circle.
Of the warmth of his social dispositions, the range of
his private correspondence affords the most convincing
proofs. Even in the angry period of 98, so memorable
for its dissocializing spirit, he wrote to a distinguished
political opponent : I feel extraordinary gratification
in addressing this letter to you, with whom shades of
36*

LIFE OF

difference in political sentiment have not prevented the
interchange of good opinion, nor cut oif the friendly
offices of society and good correspondence. This poli
tical tolerance is the more valued by me, who consider
social harmony as the first of human felicities, and the
happiest moments those which are given to the effusions
of the heart.

But the most interesting fragment of this nature, is
found in a letter of friendship while in France, of which
the following are extracts :

* I hope in God, no circumstance may ever make
either seek an asylum from grief! With what sincere
sympathy I would open every cell of my heart, to re
ceive the effusion of their woes ! I would pour my tears
into their wounds ; and if a drop of balm could be found
on the top of the Cordilleras, or at the remotest sources
of the Missouri, I would go thither myself to seek and
to bring it. Deeply practised in the school of affliction,
the human heart knows no joy which I have not lost,
no sorrow of which I have not drank ! Fortune can
present no grief of unknown form to me ! Who, then,
can so softly bind up the wound of another, as he who
has felt the same wound himself?

And what more sublime delight, than to mingle
tears with one whom the hand of Heaven hath smitten !
to watch over the bed of sickness, and to beguile its
tedious and its painful moments ! to share our bread
with one to whem misfortune has left none f This world
abounds indeed with misery : to lighten its burthen, we
must divide it with one another. But let us now try
the virtue of your mathematical balance, and as you
have put into one scale the burthens of friendship, let
me put its comforts into the other. When languishing
then under disease, how grateful is the solace of our
friends ! how are we penetrated with their assiduities
and attentions ! how much are we supported by their
encouragements and kind offices ! When Heaven has
taken from us some object of our love, how sweet is it
to have a bosom whereon to recline our heads, and into
which we may pour the torrent of our tears ! Grief,

THOMAS JEFFERSON, 423

with such a comfort is almost a luxury ! In a life where
we are perpetually exposed to want and accident, yours
is a wonderful proposition, to insulate ourselves, to re
tire from all A aid, and to wrap ourselves in the mantle of
self-sufficiency ! For assuredly nobody will care for
him, who cares for nobody. But friendship is precious,
not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life ; and
thanks to a benevolent arrangement of things, the greater
part of life is sunshine. * * Let the gloomy monk,
sequestered from the world, seek unsocial pleasures in
the bottom of his cell ! Let the sublimated philosopher
grasp visionary happiness, while pursuing phantoms
dressed in the garb of truth ! Their supreme wisdom is
supreme folly : and they mistake for happiness the mere
absence of pain. Had they ever felt the solid pleasure
of one generous spasm of the heart, they would exchange
for it all the frigid speculations of their lives, which
you have been vaunting in such elevated terms. Be
lieve me, then, my friend, that that is a miserable arith
metic, which could estimate friendship at nothing, or at
less than nothing.

Owing in part, if not altogether to a general pressure
upon the landed interest in Virginia, which had been felt
for several preceding years, the affairs of Mr Jefferson
became embarrassed, and in February, 1826, an act pass
ed the legislature of Virginia to dispose of his estates by
means of a lottery. The scheme of the lottery embrac
ed three great prizes, to wit, the Monticello estate, valued
at TljOOO dollars ; the Shad well mills adjoining it, valued
at 30,000; and the Albemarle estate, at 11,500. The
Bedford tract was not thrown in, because, being derived
from his wife, Mr Jefferson had only a life estate in it,
with power to convey it to their descendants in such por
tions as he chose. Otherwise this estate would have
gone in with the rest.

Simultaneously with the proceedings in the Virginia
legislature, and as soon as it became known that Mr Jef
ferson was in a state of pecuniary distress, a spontane
ous feeling of gratitude burst forth in every section of

424

LIFE OP

the union. The paltry expedient of a lottery was con
sidered too cold and calculating a remedy for a case
which addressed itself to all the nobler sympathies of the
human heart. Public meetings were called in all the
considerable cities of the union, at which feeling and
high spirited resolutions were passed, and subscriptions
opened, which were as suddenly filled with contributions
to the relief of the suffering apostle of human liberty.
The legislature of Louisiana, actuated by a peculiar
sense of gratitude to the author of their admission into
the republic, immediately passed an act appropriating
ten thousand dollars to be placed at his disposal. The
legislature of South Carolina, it is believed, did the same.
Various schemes were proposed, in different places, in
all which the leading object appeared to be, how to be
stow their bounty so as to give least pain to the delicacy
of his feelings.

But Mr Jefferson lived to derive very little benefit from
these voluntary offerings of a grateful people, and none
from the legislative provision of his native State. His
health had been impaired by a too free use of the hot
spring bath in 1818. From that time his indisposition
steadily increased until the spring of 1826, when it at
tained a troublesome and alarming violence, giving cer
tain indications of a gradual approach of dissolution.
Of the issue he seemed perfectly aware. On the
5th of June, he observed to a friend that he doubted his
weathering the present summer. On the 24th of June,
his disorder and weakness having reached a distressing
point, he yielded to the entreaties of his family and saw
his physician, Dr Dungleson of the university. On
this occasion he warned a friend who came to see him on
private business, that there was no time to be lost ; and
expressed with regret his only apprehension, that he
could not hold out to see the blessed Fourth of July ;
that he had called in a physician, and to gratify his fam
ily, would follow his prescriptions, but that it would prove

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 425

unavailing the machine had worn out and would go
on no longer. On the same day, he addressed that most
remarkable letter to the mayor of Washington, copies of
which, elegantly printed and framed, adorn the mantel
pieces of many of the private dwellings in that city, and
the walls of its public edifices. This was the last letter
he ever wrote, and surely none was better fitted to be the
last.

1 Respected Sir, The kind invitation I receive from
you, on the part of the citizens of the city of Washing
ton, to be present with them at their celebration on the
fiftieth anniversary of American independence, as one
of the surviving signers of an instrument pregnant with
our own, and the fate of the world, is most flattering to
myself, and heightened by the honorable accompaniment
proposed for the comfort of such a journey. It adds
sensibly to the sufferings of sickness, to be deprived by
it of a personal participation in the rejoicings of that
day. But acquiescence is a duty, under circumstances
not placed among those we are permitted to control. I
should indeed, with peculiar delight, have met and ex
changed there congratulations personally with the small
band, the remnant of that host of worthies, who joined
with us on that day, in the bold and doubtful election we
were to make for our country, between submission or the
sword ; and to have enjoyed with them the consolatory
fact, that our fellow-citizens, after half a century of ex
perience and prosperity, continue to approve the choice
we made. May it be to the world, what I believe it will
be (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to
all,) the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under
which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded
them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and
security of self-government. That form which we have
substituted, restores the free right to the unbounded ex
ercise of reason and freedom of opinion. All eyes are
opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general
spread of the light of science has already laid open to
every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind
has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a fa
vored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legiti-

426 LIFE OF

mately, by the grace of God. These are grounds of
hope for others. For ourselves, let the annual return of
this day for ever refresh our recollections of these rights,
and an undiminished devotion to them.

I will ask permission here to express the pleasure
with which I should have met my ancient neighbors of
the city of Washington and its vicinities, with whom I
passed so many years of a pleasing social intercourse ;
an intercourse which so much relieved the anxieties of
the public cares, and left impressions so deeply engraved
in my affections as never to be forgotten. With my re
gret that ill health forbids me the gratification of an ac
ceptance, be pleased to receive for yourself, and those
for whom you write, the assurance of my highest respect
and friendly attachments.

On the 28th of June, a friend from a distance visited
him on private business, and has left an affecting account
of his interview. * As I approached the house, says he,
4 the anxiety and distress visible in the countenance of
the servants, increased the gloom of my own forebodings,
and I entered it under no little agitation. After the ob
ject of my call was made known to Mrs Randolph, she
told me that although her father had been expecting to
see me, he was then too unwell to receive any orte. It
was but too evident, that the fears of his daughter over
balanced her hopes ; and while sympathising in her dis
tress, I could not help sighing to think that, although
separated from him only by a thin wall, I was never
more to behold the venerable man, who had entered all
the walks of politics and philosophy, and in all was fore
most and to whom the past, present and all future
ages are, and will be so much indebted. However, Mrs
Randolph having left me, to attend to her father, soon
returned, and observed that she had taken it for granted
that he could not see me ; but upon her casually men
tioning my arrival, he had desired I should be invited in
to his chamber. My emotions at approaching Jefferson s
dying bed, I cannot describe. You remember the alcove

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 427

in which he slept. There he was extended feeble,
prostrate ; but the fine and clear expression of his coun
tenance not at all obscured. At the first glance he re
cognized me, and his hand and voice at once saluted me.
The energy of his grasp, and the spirit of his conversa
tion, were such as to make rne hope he would yet rally
and that the superiority of mind over matter in
his composition, would preserve him yet longer. He re
gretted that I should find him so helpless, talked of the
freshet then prevailing in James River, and said he had
never known a more. destructive one. He soon, howev
er, passed to the university, expatiated on its future utility,
commended the professors, and expressed satisfaction at
the progress of the students. A sword was suspended
at the foot of his bed, which he told me was presented to
him by an Arabian chief, and that the blade was a true
Damascus. At this time he became so cheerful as to
smile, even to laughing, at a remark I made. He al
luded to the probability of his death, as a man would to
the prospect of being caught in a shower, as an event
not to be desired, but not to be feared. Upon proposing
to withdraw, I observed that I would call to see him
again. He said, well do, but you will dine here to-day.
To this I replied, I proposed deferring that pleasure
until he got better. He waved his hand and shook his
head with some impatience, saying, emphatically, you
must dine here, my sickness makes no difference. I
consented, left him, and never saw him more.

During the four or five days remaining to him, his de
cay was gradual, but visible. Of this no one was more
conscious than himself; yet he retained to the last mo
ment of his existence, the same serene, decisive, and
cheerful temper, which had marked his eventful history.
He often recurred with spirit and animation to the uni
versity, and expressed his hope that * the State would not.
now abandon it. He spoke of the changes which he
feared would be made in it ; of his probable successor

428 LIFE OF

as Rector ; of the services he had rendered to his native
State ; and counselled and advised as to his private af
fairs. Upon being unusually ill for a short time, he ob
served very cheerfully, Well, Doctor, a few hours more
and the struggle will be over. He called in his family,
and conversed calmly and separately with each of them.
To his daughter he presented a small morocco case
which he requested her to open immediately after his
decease. On opening the case it was found to contain
an elegant and affectionate strain of poetry * on the vir
tues of his dutiful and incomparable daughter. When
the 3d of July arrived, upon enquiring with some solici
tude the day of the month, he expressed a fervent de
sire to live till the next day, that he might breathe the
air of the fiftieth anniversary, when he would joyfully
sing, with old Simeon, " Nunc Dimittas, Dornine" In
the few short intervals of delirium which occurred, his
mind relapsed to the age of the revolution, with all the
enthusiasm of that period. He talked, in broken sen
tences, of the committees of safety, and the rest of that
great machinery, which he imagined to be still in mo
tion. One of his exclamations was, Warn the com
mittee to be on their guard, and he instantly rose in his
bed, with the help of his attendants, and went through
the act of writing a hurried note. But his reason was
almost constantly in her seat, when the great topics on
which he dwelt, were the happiness of his only and be
loved child, the University of Virginia, and the advent of
the approaching anniversary.

When the morning of that day came, he appeared to
be thoroughly impressed that he should not live through
it, and only expressed a desire that he might survive un
til mid-day. He seemed perfectly at ease, and ready
to die. When the Doctor entered his room, he said,
1 Well, Doctor, you see I am here yet. His disorder
being checked, a friend expressed a hope of amendment.
His reply was, that the powers of nature were too much

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 429

exhausted to be rallied. To a member of his family who
remarked that he was better, and that the Doctor thought
so, he listened with evident impatience, and said, Do
not imagine for a moment that /feel the smallest solic
itude as to the result. He then calmly gave directions
for his funeral, forbidding all pomp and parade ;
being answered by a hope that it would be long ere the
occasion would require their observance, he asked, with
a smile, Do you think I fear to die ? A few moments
after, he called his family and friends around his bed
side, and uttered distinctly the following sentence : * I
have done for my country, and for all mankind, all that
I could do, and I now resign my soul, without fear, to
my God, my daughter to my country. These were the
last words he articulated his last solemn declaration
to the world his dying will and testament, bequeath
ing his most precious gifts, to his God and his country.
All that was heard from him afterwards, was a hurried
repetition, in indistinct and scarcely audible accents, of
his favorite ejaculation, Nunc Dimittas, Domine Nunc
Dimittas, Domine. He sunk away imperceptibly, and
breathed his last, without a struggle or a murmur, at ten
minutes before one o clock, on the great JUBILEE of
American liberty the day, and hour too, on which the
Declaration of Independence received its final reading,
and the day, and hour, on which he prayed to Heaven
that he might be permitted to depart.

Was not the hand of God most affectingly displayed
in this event, as if to add another to the multiplied
proofs of His special superintendence over this happy
country ? On the anniversary of a day the most dis
tinguished in the annals of mankind on its fiftieth an
niversary, and in merciful fulfilment of his last earthly
prayer, he closed his eyes. Few of the miracles record
ed in the sacred writings, are more conspicuous or im
posing. Mark again the extraordinary protraction of
physical existence manifested in the last moments of Mr
37

430 LIFE OF

Jefferson, as if to render the coincidence more striking
ly and beautifully complete. At eight o clock, P. M.
on the 3d of July, his physician pronounced that he
might be expected to die in any quarter of an hour from
that time. Yet he lived seventeen hours longer, with
out any evident pain or suffering, or restlessness ; with
sensibility, consciousness, and intelligence for much more
than twelve hours of the time ; and at last gradually
subsided into inanimation like a lamp which had shone
throughout a long dark night, spreading far and wide
its beneficent rays, yet still lingering to usher in the
broad day light upon mankind.

Never was this nation more profoundly impressed
than by the occurrence of this event. Instead of be
ing viewed in the light of a calamity, there was not a
heart which did not feel a mournful pleasure at the
miraculous beauty of such a death. All business was
suspended, as the intelligence spread through the coun
try ; the minute guns were fired, the bells sounded a
funeral note, the flags of the shipping fell half mast, and
every demonstration of profound feeling was displayed.
But five hours afterward, on the same day, died John
Adams. In the same mighty spirit, also, with the last
words, Independence forever^ and Jefferson survives.

The extraordinary coincidence in the death of these
great men, is without a parallel in the records of history.
Were any doubts harbored of their sincere devotion to
their country while living, they must surely be dissipa
ted forever by the time and manner of their death. One,
the author of the Declaration of Independence, the other
its great champion and defender on the floor of Con
gress, and both the only two survivors of the committee
appointed to prepare that instrument, another and
powerful confirmation was thus added, that Heaven it
self mingled visibly in the jubilee celebration of Ameri
can Liberty, hallowing anew the day by a double apoth-

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 431

eosis. They were great and glorious in their lives ; in
death they were not divided. It was indeed a fit occa
sion for the deepest public feeling. Happening singly,
each of these events was felt as supernatural ; happen
ing together, the astonishment which they occasioned,
was general and almost overwhelming.

In a private memorandum, found among some other
obituary papers of Mr Jefferson, was the suggestion that
in case any memorial of him should ever be thought of,
a small granite obelisk should be erected, with the follow
ing inscription :

HERE LIES BURIED,

THOMAS JEFFERSON,

AUTHOR OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE,

OF THE STATUTES OF VIRGINIA FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, AND

FATHER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA.

Volumes of panegyric could never convey so adequate
an idea of unpretending greatness, as is contained in this
brief and modest epitome of all the splendid achieve
ments of a long, an arduous, and incessantly useful life.

THE END.

14 DAY USE

RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED
LOAN DEPT.

This book is due on the last date stamped below, or
on the date to which renewed.
Renewed books are subject to immediate recall.

LIBRARY USE

MARl Q19S9

IN 6"* c

,IV9

M-M-A

JUN*3

\960

nrETC D L.^3

^ 10 fco3

Wtfc--

r% ^-*^

jRHS

t %

LIBRARY USE

J : ^-^*.;,v

NOV 1619bS

v^.^^

ADD i f~k

ejifliaajji

JUI ^

REC D

LD

LD 21A-

(6889sl

General Libr?
University of CaJ
Berkeley

s C

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY